Ninko
by Dinlek
Summary: Two powerful shinobi underestimate the cunning of a bijuu, and one blond-haired jinchuuriki reaps the fruit of their failings, for good or ill. Hiatus.
1. Of Orphans and Elders

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series. So please, don't sue me.**

**Story Title:** Ninko

**Author: **Dinlek

**Summary: **AU. Two powerful shinobi underestimate the cunning of a bijuu, and one blond-haired jinchuuriki reaps the fruits of their failings, for good or ill.

**Rating: **T for violence, description of injuries, some swearing.

**Warnings: **Heavy spoilers.

Author's Note at the bottom of the page.

* * *

Ninko, Chapter 1: Of Orphans and Elders

The boy shivered, teeth chattering, as he watched the moonbeams alight upon dust motes swirling through the air. He ignored the errant spring poking into his back with practiced ease; he was more than used to the poor condition of his bedchambers. He chuckled at that term despite himself. He'd heard the matron speak of a young prince's bedchambers when she read stories to the _other _children, yet he doubted his own room would be fit for royalty.

He pulled his single blanket - clean, thankfully - up to his chin, and allowed his head upon the strange-smelling, yet still comfortable pillow he'd received. Jiji had been rather cross when he'd last visited the orphanage and seen his room. The 'caregiver' in charge of the child's area left rather abruptly with some of the Jiji's masked friends for _a talk_, as the white-haired man had said.

The memories did well to distract him from the nights bitter chill. The orphanage was a building battered by age, and the section he slept in was one of the most age-ravaged. Usually, such rooms were given to the older children, who were more able to cope with the cold. However, Naruto was the one exception to that rule. Few were particularly concerned with his comfort.

Shaking away the dour thoughts, the azure eyed boy gazed out the window, his eyes alighting on the Hokage monument. The faces of Konohagakure no sato's revered leaders, carved in stone with firm and unyielding visages, watched over the village as it slept. _'Someday, I'll...'_ His eyes closed, as the smile departed from his whisker-marked cheeks.

Uzumaki Naruto slept at last, and dreamt the dreams that often danced through is mind's eye in these months.

He dreamt of cunning vulpine eyes, and of the world burning.

**

* * *

**Sarutobi Hiruzen gazed out across the village, and sighed.

When he was younger, he'd been proud of Konoha's spirit. The 'will of fire'. Now, the very phrase was like ashes in his mouth, a bitter, ruined reminder of what once was. He gazed out at the clearings and new growth that dotted the forest beyond Konoha's walls. The patches of land were still trying to recover from the Kyuubi's assault, the creature's foul chakra bathing the areas the beast tired upon so wholly that the wizened Hokage had wondered if they would ever recover. Yet persist they did, and though wounded, they regrew. Sapling rose up to replace the fallen, and soon the forest would no longer remember what it had lost.

The spirit of Konoha's people, however, was not so easily rekindled.

The loss of Namikaze Minato was one that Konoha would never truly recover from. The man was dearly loved by the people of Konohagakure no sato, and he represented everything that a Konoha shinobi strived to be. Truly, his legacy would never be forgotten by the village, yet it was _terrible_ to think of what _could_ have been. The Yondaime was poised to lead his village into an age of prosperity. At the end of the Third Great Ninja War, Konoha was one of the strongest forces on the continent, and though kind-hearted, Minato was cunning, and a realist. He knew that allowing the other nations to grow unopposed would merely spark a fourth war in due time. He was more than ready to do what needed to be done, and yet…

…the Kyuubi no Yoko was a challenge none had expected. The beast took not only Konohagakure no sato's strongest warrior, but also a sizable portion of it's shinobi. Iwa was desperate to capitalize on Konoha's moment of weakness, and both nations surreptitiously fielded shinobi against one another. Fortunately, Konoha was by-and-large victorious in the skirmishes, yet it still lost more shinobi than the Hokage would have liked.

In the end, the legacy of the Yondaime Hokage was shameful. All that remained was a wounded soul who hid himself behind masks - both literal and figurative - and a jinchuuriki shunned by his fellow villagers.

Sarutobi turned away from the window at long last. Gazing out at the city below filled him with nothing but sadness and regret. Sighing to himself once more, he strode towards his desk, and settled into his chair with a barely suppressed groan. Age, it seemed, was catching up with 'The God of Shinobi', and Sarutobi could do little more than grin and bare the pains that time had inflicted upon his body.

He hated to admit it, but he had long since lost his edge. The Sandaime Hokage of old was a respected, and in many cases feared leader. Iwa would not have been so bold had the younger Sarutobi, the man renowned as the Professor, been wearing the vestments of this illustrious position. Sadly, the issues in that vein were both foreign and domestic. While Iwa impudence was aggravating, the Council of Konoha was a particularly large thorn in the Hokage's side. Sadly, he lacked both the tenacity and the respect he once possessed, and the council was more than willing to exploit every inch in gave them, and then some.

The issue with young Naruto was a particularly telling in this regard.

The Council of Konoha was made up of both shinobi and civilian elements, and had at Konoha's founding been an advisory body. Squabbles amongst clans - namely the Senju, Hyuuga and Uchiha - necessitated an organ with more bilateral power in the village. While the Hokage held the final world in all shinobi matters pertaining to missions, skirmishes and the like, the more administrative aspects of Konohagakure no sato were arbitrated by both the Hokage and the council.

Young Naruto, jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko was a factor that the council endeavored to 'control' if at all possible, and it was one of the few things they easily agreed upon.

The boy's image in the village was, to put it lightly, poor. Even amongst the level-headed population, he was, at best, seen as an unstable youth with far to much power in his hands. At worst, he was seen as a monument to the countless dead and untold destruction the Kyuubi wrought upon the village. The orphanage matron was among this population. While she did not despise the child, she feared him greatly. Even in her kinder moment, she saw the boy as a reminder of all she had lost on that cruel night.

Far more dangerous, however, were the select few who saw him as the biju itself. ANBU were often hard at work to root these select few out, and the Hokage made an example out of them with a ruthlessness many found anomolous. Surprisingly, the council was extremely cooperative in this regard. The death of Uzumaki Naruto was a frightening prospect. Few knew what would happen to the biju that was sealed within him when he perished, and fewer still wished to risk the worst.

Thus, the child was left in limbo. Only a select few even considered adopting the child, and the council prevented it rather tenaciously. Logically, allowing a single party to adopt Uzumaki Naruto would be dangerous. Any ninja clan to do so would have a the power of a jinchuuriki, and any civilian would have an extremely dangerous tool to exploit. In the end, preventing the blond-haired boy form being adopted likely saved him from a life of exploitation and grief.

It did little to help the poor child's condition, though. He would likely live in the orphanage until he turned 10, at which point Sarutobi might manage to get him an apartment of his on to live in. As ridiculous as it sounded, the aged Hokage had little doubt he'd be as well cared for living alone as in that orphanage.

Sarutobi was deeply disturbed by the conditions Naruto had been living in when he visited him earlier that day. His room was far away from the entrance, and his bedding consisted of an old and stained blanket, a tattered pillow and a thick rug to lay on. The caregiver who saw to that section of the orphanage figured it a rather fitting set-up for a "bastard demon", and commented that "perhaps he should sleep outside, instead, like an animal". His treatment of Naruto often involved violence, and surprisingly enough it was the matron, Senzaku Kiyone who finally stepped forward and called for Sarutobi's attention.

It took ever bit of self-restraint the aged Hokage had to refrain from killing the man where he stood. Instead, he turned the caregiver over to Ibiki's tender mercies. The man, while leery of Naruto, nevertheless despised anyone who'd torment a small child.

Sarutobi immediately saw to the boy getting at least adequate bedding, yet the marks of neglect were clear on the boy. He was rather malnourished, something that Sarutobi had previously attributed to simply be a smaller than average. However, he noted the boy's ribcage clearly shown on his skin when he changed in the morning, and the thought made the aged Hokage grimace. The orphanage was low on food as a whole, it was doubtful that the matron was intentionally denying the child nourishment. The Hokage wanted to believe it was due to his massive chakra reserves - already rivaling those of a low chuunin, which was remarkable for one his age. As experienced shinobi knew, in order to maintain reserves like that, the body had to metabolize a great deal of food. Sarutobi noted that the boy certainly ate voraciously whenever taken out to the ramen stand down the street from the orphanage. Though the food was terrible for the boy, Sarutobi didn't want to deny such a simple pleasure. The boy had already been denied so much…

Pulling out his pipe, Sarutobi delicate placed some tobacco in the 'bowl' before lighting it with a simple katon jutsu. Smoke wafted through the air, with the rich scent that Kusa's tobacco was known for. Enjoying one of his favorite vices, Sarutobi Hiruzen set his mind and gaze upon the endless documents before him.

Quietly, the aged Hokage wondered in Minato would look upon the village with as much shame as he did now.

* * *

Naruto trailed behind the other children as they strode through the streets of Konoha.

His stature spoke of unease. His shoulders were slumped, and his head bowed forward. His blond bangs shielded his wide blue eyes as he dragged his feet along the dust-covered walk-ways, his feet kicking up stray pebbles and sending them bouncing forward, off the walls of buildings and the clothed legs of various passerby. In spite of his bright orange jumpsuit - something Jiji had bought for him a few months ago - it seemed to the boy that the villagers spared him no more than a glance, going on with their daily routine as though he did not exist.

A child's eyes miss much, though. Had they been more keen, they would have seen the caution, the worry, the _fear_ reflected in the eyes of Konoha's people. They avoided locking eyes with him as one might avoid locking eyes with a madman, as though he'd snap at the merest slight.

The matron, Kiyone-obasan, led the convoy of children to the nearby park, and they spread off in groups to frolic and play as children are wont to do. Uzumaki Naruto had long since learned that following them was an exercise in futility. The other children heard the whispers, received the warnings. 'That boy is _dangerous_' the adults would say when the blond-haired child was out of ear shot, 'you'd best leave him be' they'd whisper.

Amongst the children, Uzumaki Naruto was an aberrant, a freak. Though the Hokage's law hid the truth, the sentiment of the villagers was passed on the the children easily enough: the boy was not normal.

Said blue-eyed orphan climbed upon a swing and kick his legs back and forth with little effect. As usual, the other children gave him a wide berth. The curiosity that had driven peers to seek Naruto out had long since abated, and said children often found the punishment for their 'adventures' made interacting with Naruto more troublesome than it was worth.

_'Tch, who needs them!'_ the blond-haired boy thought to himself, _'I have Jiji, Ayame-chan and Teuchi-ojisan. They see me, talk to me...unlike everyone else.'_

Still, the boy wondered why the villagers treated him so cruelly. What had he done to earn their ire? _M-maybe they know about me sneaking food when nobody's looking? That has to be it!_ the boy thought to himself, nodding, _'I wouldn't do it, but I'm always so **hungry**.'_

With that thought in his head, Naruto heard his stomach growl, and patted his gut as though to soothe it. _'I'm pretty hungry right now...maybe I should try to find Ichiraku's! Their food is the best!'_

A smile bloomed upon the boy's face, and he nodded to himself once more. _'That settles it! I'll go there, and see Ayame-chan and Teuchi-san again. Maybe Jiji'll be there too.'_

_

* * *

_On the surface, Ichiraku Teuchi seemed a stern, impersonal man, with a gift when it came to making fresh ramen. However, those that came to know him well knew otherwise. Though he may seem somewhat aloof, he was a compassionate man, who loved his village and it's people. He was more than willing to offer advice or lend an ear to anyone looking for either.

He _was_ a damn good ramen chef, though.

Teuchi was just cleaning off the counter from the mid-day rush when a short, blond-haired boy stumbled in through through the door. A wide grin spread across the boy's face as he saw the ramen chef, and he all but yelled "Heya, Teuchi-ojiisan!"

A half-hearted frown crossed the ramen chef's face, and he mock growled at the boy "I'm not old, gaki."

"You are compared to me...jiji!" the boy said bombastically in response, sticking his tongue out childishly.

The ramen chef snorted. "That's because you're just a little brat."

Naruto sniffed, crossing his arms and sticking his nose up in the air. "I'm _not _little, I'm turning _six_ soon! Then I'll enter the Shinobi Academy, and become and awesome ninja! Dattebayo!"

_Almost six_, Teuchi sighed, _he barely looks over four years old. Are they even feeding him?_

"Tou-san, what's going on out here-- Naruto-kun?"

Teuchi turned around, and smiled at his daughter, Ayame, as she walked out from the kitchen. He nodded slightly, before turning towards his favorite customer once more.

"Yeah, this gaki barges in here, and has the gall to call me _old!_ Me! I'm only thirty-six, I'm _not_ old," he states firmly.

Ayame walked over to the counter, leaning forward slightly and locking eyes with Naruto. "Are you harrassing my father, Naruto-kun?"

Said blond-haired boy scratched the back of his head while looking down on his feet, appearing chastized by the girl's mere question. "G-gomen, Ayame-chan."

"What are you doing out here anyway, Naruto-kun? Aren't you a little...young to be walking around by yourself?"

"Aheh, well, I was kinda hungry," he chuckled uneasily, "and I figured there was no better place to go for food than Ichiraku's!" he finished with a big smile.

Teuchi nodded and smiled. "Ah, okay then Naruto-kun. I think I should be able to whip something together for you before we take a break for the afternoon."

"Arigatou, Teuchi-ojiisan!"

Naruto chuckled at the grumbles coming from the direction the ramen chef departed in, while Ayame sighed. "You enjoy doing that, don't you Naruto-kun?"

"Yup!"

"So, what are you doing out here, Naruto-kun? Aren't you a little young to be wandering around alone?"

"Aheh, well, I was kinda hungry, and I figured there was no better place to come to than Ichiraku's!"

"You better believe it, gaki!" Teuchi chuckled, placing a bowl of ramen infront of the whiskered blond. "You'll not find better ramen in all of the elemental nations!"

Naruto nodded emphatically as he broke apart a pair of chopsticks. "Itadakimasu!"

"Heh, I see you have _some_ manners, Naruto-kun." Teuchi ribbed.

The blond-haired boy paid the comment no heed, however, as he voraciously dug into the dish Ichiraku's was famous for. He ate like a man starved, slurping up noodles and shoveling them into his mouth like the bowl would be taken away at any moment.

Ayame giggled at the blond boys antics. "Not many manners though, Tou-san!"

Naruto paused for a moment and spoke "Aut yoo oo, Aieaa-yan!"

"Swallow first, Naruto-kun!" the girl scolded half-jokingly, and the boy did so.

"Heh, gomen!"

"So Naruto-kun, how exactly are you paying? Did Hokage-sama send you down here with some yen?" Teuchi asked while washing up the countertop that Naruto wasn't using.

Said child paused, his eyes widening to comical proportions.

"Kuso!"

"Naruto-kun!" Ayame scolded.

"I'm sorry, I totally forgot!"

"Not that!" she said, wagging her finger, "you using such language!"

"Gomen," Naruto said, resisting the urge to pout. Turning back towards the ramen chef, the blond-haired boy continued "I'm sorry Teuchi-ojisan," the child said, "I'll pay you back, I promise!"

"Don't worry about it, Naruto-kun. It's on the house, for our favorite customer."

"No!" the boy said, shaking his head dramatically. "I'm not a freeloader," he continued, "I'll pay you back, I promise! Dattebayo!"

"Very well, Naruto-kun."

"But, tou-san..."

Ayame was silenced with a loving, yet stern look from her father.

Finishing his meal, Naruto leaned as far back as his tenuous position on the 'bar-stool' would allow. "Ah man, good as ever, Teuchi-ojiisan!"

"Glad you enjoyed it, Naruto-kun."

Nodding, Naruto stood up, and strode out the stall with a confident swagger only a child or fool could possess.

A mere moment later, he stuck his head back in a chuckled. "Say...can you tell me how to get back to the orphanage?"

* * *

Senzaku Kiyone was a woman of simple pleasures. Her hobbies consisted of reading various pieces of literature, teaching the orphans under her care, and when the mood struck her, painting.

Her eyes had lost some of the spark they once held, her skin was no longer as smooth and faultless as it once was, age had marred the beauty she once possessed, but she certainly aged well for a woman of fifty. She now possessed a calmness that only those who'd lived and learned could possess. She was a sensible, reason woman in many things.

As such, she only _considered_ screaming out her frustration at the top of her lungs.

_'Where did that little brat go?!'_ she thought frantically, _'I swear, when I get my hands on that blond-haired brat...'_

She sighed raggedly. She'd have to speak to the Hokage quickly. If anything happened to the child, she might follow the caregiver that the ANBU had taken off with.

Picking up her handbag, she glided - for even though she had grown old, she still possessed the grace she'd had as a young woman - towards the door...

...only to run into Uzumaki Naruto in the flesh.

He hid behind the legs of a man a decade or so her junior, his face locked in a stern expression.

"Hello, mister..."

"Ichiraku Teuchi." came the simply reply.

"...hello, Ichiraku-san. What is it that Naruto-kun has done?" she said, warily. Uzumaki Naruto was a...strange child. He often switched from introverted, reserved moods to bombastic and extroverted ones, and troubling trait that many attributed to the kitsune nature of his tenant.

"Done? He simply dropped by my shop for lunch. He was rather hungry, seemed as though he hadn't eaten in days..." he stated simply, trailing off at the end.

_'Ah!'_ she realized, _'He isn't restraining Naruto, he's...protecting him. How strange.'_

"The child seems to have a ravenous apetite, almost as though he is eating for two..." she remarked casually.

The man's face darkened.

_'So he does know...'_

"He is a growing boy. I figured it would be wise for me to bring him back here, lest he be lost on the streets and bereft of proper care."

The matron frowned at the implication. "I spent a while trying to track down Naruto-kun, he seems to enjoying wander off."

Said blond-haired boy stepped forward at last. "Aheh, gomen, I was really hungry, Kiyone-obasan...er, Senzaku-san! G-gomen nasai!" He all but shouted at the end.

The matron winced, and the boy flinched back behind Teuchi leg. Kiyone had stomped out any familiarity between the blond-haired orphan and herself. He was dangerous, and she didn't want to form and bonds to him. It would be safer to clutch a kunai wrapped in an explosive note to her breast...

"Kiyone-obasan is fine, brat." she stated, her eyes gaining a bit more warmth as she locked gazes with the boy. "Now get inside, and I'll see if I can't get something you can eat the next time you get hungry after meals."

"R-really?! Arigatou!" he shouted, before brushing past Teuchi and throw the orphanage doors, as though worried the matron would tack on a punishment if he tarried.

"No manners, that one." Kiyone muttered.

"Aye, but I wouldn't have him any other way."

Kiyone turned back to Teuchi, and noted his face was somewhat warmer than before.

"Good-bye, Ichiraku-san."

"Good-bye, Senzaku-san."

The woman turned, before she realized she'd never told the man her name. Naruto must have spoken to him about her. About how strict she was no doubt. How aloof...

"Kiyone-obasan, huh..." she muttered, as though testing the words. "Perhaps it's time to give the boy a chance."

* * *

**Japanese Term List/Jutsu List  
**

Konohagakure no sato: Village Hidden in the Leaves

Kyuubi no Yoko: Nine-tailed Demon Fox

Kitune: Fox

Gomen: Sorry

Arigatou: Thank-you

Gaki: Brat; kid

Itadakimasu: "I humbly receive", stated at the beginning of a meal

Jinchuuriki: Power of human sacrifice, a human vessel for a demon

Iwa: Stone

Kuso: A curse word, used to the effect of "damn"

Jiji: Old-man, coot, a slang (sometimes considered derogatory) way of addressing an elderly male

Dattebayo: This is the term I'm taking the most liberty with. According to Kishimoto, this term doesn't have a strict defintion, but I've seen subs/dubs interchange the term with "believe it!", which is what I'm using in these instances. Don't worry, I'm using it _very_ sparingly, seeing it every other sentence makes me cringe, personally

-chan: An honorific used to refer to young girls or infants of both genders; used between lovers or close friends, usually for females

-kun: More-or-less the male version of the honorific -chan, though it can in some circumstances be used to refer to females

-Obasan/Obachan: Aunt, or elder lady. The chan suffix is far more personal

-Ojiisan: Grandfather or old-man, in a more respectful term than jiji (Naruto refers to Teuchi in this fashion as a joke to poke at his age, more accurate otherwise would be ojisan)

-Ojisan: Uncle, or Mister, used to address older men

**A/N**: Just an idea that's been floating around in my head for a while. Hasn't gotten to the meat of the plot yet, but it will soon enough. Using a bit of the cliche'd premises to start out, but I intend to give the story my own flair soon enough.

I've written other pieces before, but never this fandom, and I could definately use a Beta who would be interested in looking at later chapters for me. Updates will be sporadic, I write as my muse hits me. Anyway, reviews on the good, the bad, and anything else under the sun are appreciated!

If you see anything that seems amiss, please inform me. I've yet to find a Beta for this story, but I figured that if I just let this sit around for much longer, I'd lose my inclination to write.


	2. Of Bewitching Red Eyes

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series. So please, don't sue me.**

Author's Note at the bottom of the chapter.

* * *

Ninko, Chapter 2: Of Bewitching Red Eyes

"We are here today, to remember. To remember the sacrifices made in the name of Konohagakure no sato that brought this village to where it is today. Konoha has a legacy of strong warriors, that much is certain. From it's birth, the Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama ensured that Konoha would have the foundation necessary to ensure it's growth. Yet this village does not live on merely through it's talent."

_'Why...?'_

"Through vicious war, Konoha has persisted. Even with enemies trodding upon the land of Hi no Kuni, we endure. Against insurmountable odds, the Shinobi of Konohagkure fight on, and we _all_ pay the price. Mothers and fathers outlive their sons and daughters. Friends, neighbors, and lovers, we have all lost someone dear to us. And yet, still, we endure."

_'Why is that, even now, when we stand together..__**united**__....'_

"We all know what gives Konohagakure no sato it's strength. It is not measured in bloodlines or jutsu. It does not come from strength of arms or the enfeebling of our foes. No, it comes from within each of us. Like a flame, Konohagakure no sato dances amongst the forest. Like a flame, it is beset by unyielding forces that work towards it's destruction. Yet Konoha will not submit. Each of us is willing to do what must be done. Not for national fealty, or even respect for those who sacrificed themselves in the past. We are all willing to do what must be done, for we are all connected. We all have those who are precious to us, those we would give our all to protect. And it is this that binds Konohagakure no sato together. The will to fight when we must, and the will to die when we must. The Will of Fire."

_'Why is it that even now, these words sound like lies to my ears?'_

"We are here today, to remember those who served Konohagakure no sato to their final breath. We are hear today to mourn their passing, and to celebrate what their sacrifice has given us. We are here to remember, so that we shall never forget."

_'Hashirama-sensei, Tobirama-sensei, what happened to the Konoha I remember?'_

_

* * *

_

Sarutobi Hiruzen opened the door silently, moving with a grace none would expect from someone his age. The night was young, yet the children living at the Konoha Orphanage had been sent to bed a while ago. They, along with all the other children of the village enjoyed partaking in the excitement of the festival, but as night descended upon the village, the gaiety of the occasion departed along with the children. The village gained a somber mood, and such things were not for children so young to experience.

However, Sarutobi came here to speak with the one child he knew would not be sleeping at this hour.

Uzumaki Naruto found it difficult to sleep today, October 10th, and Sarutobi made it his goal to leave the child with something to take his mind off the day's events. He knew the child heard what Konoha's villagers whispered to each other. Whispers that were particularly loud on the day of the Kyuubi no Yoko's defeat, and the Yondaime's sacrifice.

Sarutobi walked over to Naruto's room, knocked briefly, before opening the door. The warm smile on hid face dissapeared as his blood ran cold.

The boy was gone.

Closing his eyes, Sarutobi focused his chakra before extending it out. Uzumaki Naruto's signature was like a beacon to anyone capable of sensing chakra. Though it was anomalous for one his age, Naruto's reserves were at the level of a shinobi's and as such, he stood out like a beacon amongst his civilian peers.

Sarutobi realized that the boy was still within orphanage, with eased his worries considerably, but he saw fit to track the boy down nevertheless.

He strode over to the orphanage's kitchen, and noticed light peeking out from beneath the double-doors that led to the room.

The aged Hokage didn't even pause his stride as he opened the doors with a wrinkled hand, his eyes quickly locking upon movement.

He noticed a blond-haired figure dissapear behind a billowing, ankle-height skirt while a delicately aged hand guided him further. The arm was restraining, yet protective, a surprising fact considering it belonged to Senzaku Kiyone. "Oh, you scared my there, Hokage-sama!" the matron exclaimed.

Peeking out behind the aged woman's leg, Naruto grinned widely before shouting "Heya, jiji!"

"Naruto, _quiet_ now. The other orphans are still sleeping."

Sarutobi smiled back at the boy before setting his stern gaze on Kiyone. "Senzaku-san, what is Naruto doing out of his room at this time of night."

Knowing little tact, Naruto spoke up before Kiyone could possible effect a response. "I was _really_ hungry, so I came to the kitchen to try to find something to eat. Kiyone-obachan found me, and was about to help me make something before you showed up!" he said energetically, clearly happy to see the aged man.

"Hn, the last time you took it upon yourself to cook, it took three hours for me to clean out the stains." Kiyone responded coolly. Despite her tone, though, the Hokage could see little aggravation in her eyes. Curious...

"Aheh, gomen, Kiyone-obachan."

Sarutobi noted the extremely familiar method in which Naruto addressed the orphanage matron. Whenever the boy would speak about her, it was either Senzaku-san on Matron-san, the change was rather sudden, and Sarutobi couldn't help but smile. _'It seems you form yet more bonds, Naruto. In you, I see the Konoha's Will of Fire once more...'_

"Come over here for a moment, Naruto." Sarutobi said evenly, a slight smile on his face.

The boy dutifully walked over to the aged Hokage, and was taken aback when a green...thing dropped into his hands. On closer inspection, it was a coinpurse, styled to look like a frog, or a toad. It was slightly worn, though Naruto would consider it _well-loved_.

"A growing boy needs a place to keep his money, neh?" the Hokage asked, rhetorically. "It used to belong to...a very special person," _your father_, though that final part went unsaid, "I feel it should be used again, he'd prefer it that way. Happy Birthday, Naruto-kun."

"Gama-chan..." the boy remarked softly.

_"Gama-chan," another blond boy remarked, his features narrower, and cheeks unblemished._

_"Ah, clearly Jiraya-kun has found a potential toad summoner, eh?" a young Sarutobi chuckled softly._

"A-arigatou, Jiji!" Naruto replied, his blue eyes overflowing with emotion as he embraced the reminiscing Hokage.

Sarutobi didn't respond, instead he gently patted the boy on the back.

After a while, Naruto backed away from the Hokage, staring at 'Gama-chan' as though it was liable to run away.

"Go and get something to eat, Naruto-kun. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, Jiji."

A smile on his face, Sarutobi exited the orphanage, making his way back towards the Hokage's Tower.

Warily, he ignored the dark and somber atmosphere that had settled over the village like a malaise.

* * *

"Ah, that was really good Kiyone-obachan! Arigatou!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically.

"You're welcome, Naruto-kun. Now get to sleep, okay?"

"Hai!"

Naruto missed the warm smile on Kiyone's face as he rushed to his room, but he was sporting a matching grin on his. As he collapsed on to his bed, he yawned deeply, before dropping Gama-chan on the bed in front of him._ 'I wonder who this used to belong to?' _the boy pondered as he inspected the exterior.

For a used coinpurse, it was in enterprisingly good condition. Naruto snapped it open, and was startled by the rather thick roll of bills within the toad's mouth.

"Wow, Jiji must've fed Gama-chan before he gave it to me! I could buy a bunch of ramen with this!"

Frowning, Naruto wondered why that thought gave him pause. "Kuso! I still have to pay back Teuchi-ojiisan!"

Naruto knew that the Ramen shop tended to stay open late on October 10th, with all the shinobi and civlians wandering around on the streets (going from bar to bar, frequently) sources of food were scarce. People also tended to forget to eat before they went out to celebrate, and Ichiraku's was sure to provide them with food, for a price, of course.

_'I should probably wait until tomorrow...'_ Naruto thought to himself, frowning, _'...but I might forget again. Besides, if I want to be a ninja, I can't just put stuff like this off! It's ir-rep-ponsi...ah...irresponsible!'_

Naturally, Naruto ignored the large part of him that just wanted to eat some of the terribly unhealthy dish, since Kiyone-obachan wouldn't let him out of sight since the 'ramen incident' around a week ago.

_'Ichiraku's, here I come!'_

_

* * *

_

"Are ya lost there, _gaki"_ an unfamiliar vocie drawled.

To be honest, Naruto was rather lost. The blue-eyed boy hadn't ventured far from the orphanage after 'lights out', and to make matters worse, the festivities of October 10th left the streets packed with strange stalls and stands. It was almost impossible for the boy to find his was around, and his usual bluster had left him well and truly lost before he knew how hopeless his venture was.

Nevertheless, Naruto's plight paled in comparison to the terror that flowed in his veins at the sudden voice. The words were tainted with malice, as palpable as the odor of alcohol that surrounded the strange shinobi. And he was definitely a ninja, he wore the distinctive vestments of Konoha chuunin: a navy blue body suit, with red-swirl markings under a gray-green flak jacket. A Konoha hi-ate kept his unkempt brown hair from covering his leering eyes.

Naruto now knew the feeling of _wrongness_ that had danced across his senses as he wandered the streets of Konoha. Compared with the usual response from the villagers: apathy, distance and fear, the pure hatred and loathing that had followed him sense he left the orphanage left him uneasy. As took a step away from the wild-eyed man, Naruto forced down the fear that choked his throat and sent his heartbeat pulsing in his ears.

Scratching the back of his neck in a distinctive show a nervousness, Naruto chuckled with forced mirth. "Aheh, yea, I kinda am, Shinobi-san."

"Mmm, and what is a..._child_..." he sneered that word as though a vile lie "...like you doing out at this hour?"

"I...uh...was out at the festival, and got kinda lost going back to the orphanage." the blond-haired boy lied.

"Enjoying the festival, huh? _Celebrating _the Yondaime's sacrifice, I'm sure." the man nodded, as he stalked towards the six year-old boy, his steps swaying slightly. "I lost my wife, you know. She was two months pregnant with our first..."

"...and I've seen you, walking these streets," the shinobi continued, taking short, staggering steps forward. "A momument to my loss. To _our _loss. Like some sick joke, a parody. If you had never lived, _wretch_, if you had never come...I'd have a son, and a wife."

"I...I'm s-sorry, Shinobi-san." Naruto said, his ears barely registering what the man was saying, the words slipping past his lips in an uneasy stutter. He felt the wall at his back as he finished an uneasy step. _'A dead end?!'_

"Not yet you're not..." the man uttered hatefully, staggering forward, his eyes flashing with madness. "...but you will be soon..._demon_..."

Eyes wide with terror, Naruto took off like a shot at the staggering man before ducking low and dodging, like he would whenever Jiji tried to pat his head like he always did. The man was clearly taken aback, and he didn't even move as Naruto weaved past him. _'I'm free-'_

A vice-grip on the collar of his jacket jerked thoughts of freedom from his mind, and he felt himself flying backwards. His head impacted with the wall, and stars shot infront of his eyes. Distantly, he heard the man murmur, but his ears didn't catch the words over the pounding in his skull. He was roused from his daze, though, when a hand wrapped around his throat, dragging him up along the wall and raising him to the shinobi's eye level. His eyes grew wider still as he saw the crazed man pull out a kunai, waving the weapon in front of the scared child's face.

"_P-p-please_, Shinobi-san..." the boy gasps with what little air he had left in his lungs. "Don't..."

The man faltered for a second, before his eyes reflecting uncertainty. "I don't know what you are," the man muttered, his hot breath reeking of sake as the words echoed in the alleyway. "Whether those blue-eyes of yours are...the eyes of a masked demon, or a vessel..."

The man made a one-handed seal around the kunai, mumbling under his breath before lightning danced across the blade. Naruto whimpered, fear written upon his features as the alley was illuminated by the the flicker of the lightning-chakra imbued kunai. When Naruto gazed once more into the shinobi's eyes, he saw no more confusion, nor trace of empathy. He saw naught but pain, loss, and madness. And despite himself, he couldn't help but feel pity, amongst the fear. "But I don't care. For either way, you pain is _it's_ pain." The man brought the blade down, near the boy's navel, before pull his arm back slightly. "Now _scream_." the man demanded.

The kunai thrusted forward, and as light exploded infront of Naruto's eyes, he obliged.

* * *

"Hokage-sama!"

The sudden entrance of the masked ANBU would have startled any lesser man. Sarutobi Hiruzen, however, had been sensing chakra signatures for nearly half a century. His ink-tipped quill was placed delicately into it's ink well long before the masked shinobi had entered the Hokage's Tower. The wooden pipe, still lazily sending wifts of cherry-scented smoke into the air, had long since left the Hokage's lips. No, he was well prepared for his visitor. What caused anxiety to settle in his stomach like a stone was the stressed look in the unflappable ANBU's single visible eye.

"What has happened, Kakashi-kun?" the wrinkled shinobi asked with a calm, even tone forced through experience.

"It's Naruto. There's been an attack."

The simple wooden pipe was splintered in two before the silver-haired ANBU had even finished his breath.

* * *

The only word to describe the scent was _stagnation_. It mocked his nostrils with it's nothingness, the utter wrongness of it set the blond-haired orphan on edge.

The endless pitter-patter of water drops dancing falling into quiet, motionless water railed at his ears with it's simplicity. He'd always had superb hearing, often the snores of his peers kept him awake during the night, despite many walls laying between them. Yet now, he could hear nothing but the droplets falling upon the water around him.

He opened his eyes, and at first, beheld darkness. Gradually, however, his eyes began to distinguish features. To his sides, as he lay on his back, were to walls. It seemed as though they were fashioned from metal, as he could see pits along their surface. Running parralel to the ground were queer pipes, faintly glowing blue and red respectively. These pipes ran off into the distance infront of him, their faint glow failing to penetrate the gloom. Allowing his head to fall back to the "ground", the boy indulged the lethargy that settled over his limbs like a malaise. Now, his eyes could see nothing. The "room" he lay in stretched upwards endlessly, naught but a featureless black meeting his gaze.

He had grown used to this nothingness, though, when all the pipes began to glow vibrant crimson.

With this new light beating back at the shadow, Naruto's eyes happened upon massive metal columns that stood from wall to wall, segmenting the room into two distinct section. While behind him, Naruto's eyes could now see a wall at the end of the chamber, the pipes now blazed a trail longer still into the darkness past the monolithic columns.

Naruto barely fought back a scream when, out of the shadows, something stirred.

"_Yare, yare..._" a lilting, delicate voice purred, "...what do we have here?"

From the shadows emerged a woman, her skin tanned and flawless, features narrow, yet still delicate. A crimson mane flowed down her shoulders, clothed in a red kimono that also held in a mature bust. Young as he was, though, Naruto's gaze was not drawn to her undeniably attractive features. Instead, they settled upon the woman's red irises, sparkling with an ageless cunning. Unbidden, a shiver traveled down the blond-haired boy's spine.

"Oh, so young, even amongst your kin. What is your name, child?" the woman queried, her tone soothing, yet compelling.

"U-uzumaki Naruto," the boy uttered, quietly, equal parts fear and pain in his eyes. "Who...who are you?"

"Oh Naruto-kun, you should be more concerned about your health than my identity, I think," the woman stated warningly.

Unconsciously, Naruto's hand drifted to his stomach, and it came back wet with fresh blood. He gazed at his hand, shock in his eyes as the life-giving fluid dripped from his fingers. Following the path of the crimson droplets, Naruto saw the water around him was stained red as a river of blood flowed from his stomach to the water below. So much blood...even he knew it was _far_ too much. His knees shook beneath his body as his limbs grew weak.

"I can help you, if you let me Naruto-kun. _Please_ let me help you," the strange woman pleaded, genuine concern prominent across her features.

"H...how?" the boy gasped, as numbness spread through ever inch of his body as his lifeblood seeped out. Distantly, he felt the ache of his wound, but such was lost to the concern radiating in the woman's deep red pools.

Quickly, yet with a strange grace that came so easily to her, the woman pointed him to a strange slip of paper that rested upon one of the metal columns. "Here, Naruto-kun. You must tear this seal. It keeps me from you. From helping you..." she said, softly.

_'S-seal? Why seal her from me?'_ the boy queried, as the woman's eyes drifted away from his own. The question was drowned out, however, in the pain that exploded from his stomach. It danced through his ever sense, he could smell the blood now, a tangy metal-touched scent. And yet it all vanished once more, as the woman's eyes locked with his. "Quickly, Naruto-kun! You don't have much time!"

Nodding, Naruto took a step forward, before his legs surrendered from beneath him. Pain enveloped him, as did darkness and his face fell into the water that lay upon the floor It would be so easy to surrender, now, he realized distantly. To just close his eyes, and...

"_Naruto-kun..._"

He lifted his head, his eyes locked with hers, and pain flagged. Her eyes prodded him, guided him, spurred him. So powerful was their call that he stood up once more. When he could not stand, he crawled, hand over hand towards the column. Every movement felt like agony, but in this crimson eyes lay his world...all else was nothing, nothing...

And at last, he reached his goal. His hand, soaked with water and blood reached up, and he grabbed the seal before him. He saw, now the finer details of it. It was a spiral, wreathed in jagged lines. To his untrained eyes, it was nonsense, but he could see a fault in it plain as day. The spiral was pierced by mark, and it's twin lay upon his stomach.

"Tear it, Naruto-kun, and it can no longer stand between me and you..."

And so he did.

And as his veins erupted with fire, the woman's eyes shone with triumph.

* * *

**Japanese Term List/Jutsu List**

Yare, yare: Equivalent to "my, my", or other similar exclamations made at the presence of something anomalous or new.

**A/N**: Shorter chapter this time, but this seemed like a logical place to stop. I find it a bit...uncomfortable to both read and write about a young Naruto, partly because there's no reason to write a 'normal day' in his life, and seeing such things happen to a 6-year-old child are...troubling, and I had a bit of trouble with the alleyway scene. It seemed a bit too...sudden. I tried to rectify that by easing the transition a bit more. Please read and review, your critique is greatly appreciated.


	3. Of Roots and Falling Leaves

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series. So please, don't sue me.**

Here's the next chapter of Ninko. I'd just like to say, I'd really appreciate any and all reviews, critique is very helpful for the story, especially since I've yet to find a beta. A lot of the plot is still in the works, so any commentary you have can influence quite a bit of what I do with the story.

The rest of the Author's Note at the bottom of the chapter.

* * *

Ninko, Chapter 3: Of Roots and Falling Leaves

"He's stable..." the med-nin said, a sigh on his voice. "...but his body wasn't nearly ready to handle the rush of his...tenant's chakra."

"What are the side effects?" Sarutobi asked, fearing the worst.

"Well, we can't be sure. His chakra circulatory system is intact, which is a miracle in and of itself. Judging by the notes you gave me, however, the seal seems to be...malfunctioning."

"Malfunctioning it what way?"

"I'm not a expert when it comes to seals, but the notes indicate that, should things be functioning as Yondaime-sama intended, the...the Kyuubi's chakra should be filtered by the seal array, before passing into Uzumaki-kun's coils. In that way, the seal that contains the biju also has a one-way seal on it's chakra. As Uzumaki-kun's chakra filters into it, it is supposed to be used to purify the demon's chakra bit by bit, converting it into human chakra."

Nodding, Sarutobi added. "Since the biju is imprisoned within the seal, it would be unable to 'regenerate' it's chakra. The Shodaime believe that, as the biju interacted with the world around them, the siezed chakra around them, which allowed them to maintain their forms. As such, as the biju's chakra was gradually purified, is sentience...held within that chakra...would be eradicated. Or so the Yondaime hoped. However, you said the seal was malfunctioning."

"Hai. According to the Yondaime's notes, the only time the biju's chakra should be in Uzumaki-kun's coils is in times of _great_ duress, through which the biju would be able to regenerate the boy's tissue. However...it's _all over_ the boy's circulatory system. I believe this is due to the damage the seal array received during the attack."

"The Yondaime's notes spoke of a safeguard for such an event."

"That portion was unfinished, unfortunately. It is plausible that he didn't have time to fully describe it's function before the Kyuubi reached the gate. However...we can see it's form."

Lifting up the unconscious Uzumaki Naruto's hospital gown, the med-nin revealed the seal emblazoned upon his stomach. As Sarutobi's eyes set upon it, he uttered a curse.

The Shiki Fuujin's characteristic swirl design was almost half gone, with three of the eight trigrams of the Hakke no Fuujin Shiki surrounding the design missing and a fourth almost totally missing.

There was a second seal array, however, integrated into the Shiki Fuujin, as well as covering the void where the Shiki Fuujin and Hakke no Fuujin Shiki once occupied. Said bore elements of the Gogyou Fuujin, as well as well as a slightly modified Fuuja Houin. These two seals were blended into one, however, instead of the spiral design of the rest of the seal, they were assembled into semi-circles, the ends ending where the Shiki Fuujin began. It was assembled into five semi-circles, the first, third and fifth appearing similar to the Fuuja Houin, while the second and fourth were similar to the Gogyou Fuujin. However, both of the designs contained elements of the Hakke no Fuujin Shiki.

"Can you determine the seal's function, Hokage-sama?"

Sarutobi frowned, gazing at the array now present upon Naruto's stomach. _'The Fuuja Houin is designed to suppress the influence of a seal, however in order to do so, it must encompass the entire array. However, it doesn't seem to encompass the Shiki Fuujin. Instead, it appears to be integrated **into** it. Further more, the designs making up the array are...slightly different. Instead of suppressing another seal, it is almost though it is suppressing...chakra..."_

Turning quickly, Sarutobi locked eyes with one of the ANBU watching over the room. "Except for medical personel, nobody sees him, and he is never in this room alone, understood?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

Performing a seal-less shunshin no jutsu, Sarutobi departed.

* * *

Finishing up a final brush-stroke, Sarutobi rolled up the parchment on his desk before sealing it. Lifting it up into the air, he turned towards the ANBU that appeared at his silent command. "I want this given to Jiraya. Make _certain_ he reads it, understand?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Before you go...tell the other's I'm not to be disturbed."

"As you wish."

Lifting up his pipe once more, Sarutobi formed a one-handed ram seal before channeling chakra into a seal beneath his desk. A queer sense of pressure settled over the room, particularly over the ears.

"You can come out now, Danzou."

Said Council Elder 'hmm'd' before the dispelling the jutsu that hid his position. "I see you have not lost all of your skills, Sarutobi."

"I do not wear these robes for no reason, Danzou. Little in this village escapes my notice."

The crippled man smirked ever-so-slightly, "h, then you know I am here to represent the Council's...concern...over last night's incident."

"No, I know your here to bring Naruto into your little organization," the Hokage uttered, breathing cherry-scented smoke into the air.

The smirk quickly dissapeared from the bandaged shinobi's face.

"Do you think you are the only one with eyes and ears over Konoha? This is _my_ village, Danzou. _My home._ I have lived here for over half a century. There is no nook I haven't seen, no rock I haven't turned. There's nothing you can hide from me and mine in this village."

The Councilman reigned in his surprise with practiced ease. "Then the fact I live is either because you fear the backlash caused by my death...or..."

"...or I find some use in your continued existence," Sarutobi finished.

"Nevertheless, my purpose here remains. The Uzumaki situation must be handled."

"Mm? And what would suggest, Danzou?" the Hokage queried.

"The boy needs to be trained. Last night proved it, he needs to be able to defend himself," Danzou asserted, tapping his cane on the ground to reinforce his point.

"He's six years old, with the most powerful of biju sealed within him. Strength must be tempered with discipline," Sarutobi replied evenly.

"Then he will be taught discipline."

"Such things cannot simply be taught, Danzou."

Sneering, the crippled shinobi replied with a tone full of scorn, "you're compassion for the boy is going to get him _killed_, Sarutobi, or worse. The heir to the Hyuuga clan was plucked from their very compound, one of the most secure facilities in Konohagakure no sato. And where does the jinchuuriki live? In an _orphanage_. It matters not who you have watch him, there are shinobi in the Elemental Nations who could take him miles from here faster than ANBU could blink. And they would not nearly be as gentle with your precious _pseudo-grandchild._"

"Watch your tongue, Danzou."

"I speak the truth, Sarutobi. I say only what needs to be said."

Danzou's words fell on deaf ears, though, as the wizened Hokage's eyes stared out of the window, locking his eyes on the noble, aristocratic features of the Yondaime Hokage, chiseled into the mountain-side.

"He has potential, Sarutobi. You see it, but you refuse to act on it. Your concern for him is blinding you to the fact your merely doing more damage than good. He's not normal, Sarutobi. He'll never have a normal life, and trying to force him to live one-"

"What would you have me do, Danzou?" the Hokage replied. "Making him into a killer? Strip away his humanity and turn him into the _perfect_ shinobi, like the Uchiha did with their prodigal child?"

"You speak of two extremes. You can prepare him for the life of a shinobi without destroying his humanity."

"He's a _child_. Barely six years old. One his age barely knows the world around them. Train them to see through the eyes of a shinobi and that is all he'll _ever_ see."

"Better he sees the world as a shinobi, than as a corpse," Danzou replied, coolly, but his words received no reply.

As the silence dragged on, Danzou began to speak once more, "Saru-"

"You've made your point, Danzou," Sarutobi stated, firmly. "Once I have a chance to speak with my wayward student...you may train the boy. But...you'll be doing it for Konoha, not Root. I don't want your little juinjutsu on him." At this, the aged leader paused, taking a breath before continuing. "I also want constant updates. If he so much as stubs his toe, I want to know about it, and I get the last word as to his training. He won't be your next little pet project."

"Deal," Danzou replied. At that, the council member turned to leave.

"Oh, and Danzou?" the Hokage stated, getting the council elder's attention once more.

"If you ruin my _pseudo-grandson_...I will break you." Those words, stated not as a threat, but a promise, set a shudder up the crippled shinobi's spine. For the first time in years, Danzou experienced the sheer _presence_ the Sandaime Hokage emitted.

"Understood, Hokage-sama."

* * *

"Hey, Jiji..." came the muted greeting, as Sarutobi entered the hospital room.

"Hello, Naruto-kun. It's good to see your finally awake," the aged Hokage replied, a warm smile on his face.

"Aheh," the boy chuckled, rubbing the back of his head nervously. Sarutobi noticed the boy's pallor was far paler than usual. Little surprise, given his current state. The bed the boy rested on was inclined so that he was able to sit partially up, which made it far easier for him to speak with his visitor.

The old shinobi walked over to the chair placed next to the boy's bed, and settled himself in with a slight groan. Age had done a number on "the Professor", and never was it more clear than now. He looked haggard and worn, as though he hadn't been sleeping, which in truth, he hadn't. Though he was hardly hovering by the boy's bedside, Sarutobi made a point of going to visit the unconscious child at least once a day. Given the massive amount of paperwork that filtered over his desk, it resulted in many sleepless nights.

"How long have I been...uh...asleep?" the blond-haired boy inquired uncertainly.

"Eleven days today, Naruto-kun. How are you feeling?"

The boy opened his mouth, before pausing. Quickly, his eyes flickered to the figure standing at the door, and Sarutobi picked up on the unconscious signal.

"I'm sure you're hungry, are you not? Inu-san," the Hokage stated, turning towards the dog-mask wearing ANBU at the door. "Could you get something for Naruto-kun to eat, perhaps? He hasn't eaten any solid food in _some time_, I'm sure," the Hokage finished, the subtle emphasis in his tone allowing the elite shinobi to know the true request.

"Of course, Hokage-sama," the gray-haired ANBU replied, opening the door and exiting without another word. When the Hokage turned back towards the boy, he noticed the relief in the child's eyes.

"What's on your mind, Naruto-kun?"

"Jiji...what-...who am I?"

"You're Uzumaki Naruto. A citizen of Konoha, with a great burden placed upon his shoulders. Nothing more, nothing less."

The boy barely registered the aged shinobi's reply, as he looked down into his lap. "Why did he call me a demon, Jiji? Did...did I do something wrong?"

Sarutobi paused, considering his words. He'd expected this question, but the arrangement with Danzou changed things. "You didn't do anything wrong, Naruto-kun. He called you a demon because he was afraid. He was afraid, and in his ignorance, he took out his fear upon you."

"But why me? Why do they chose me? Why do they look at me with those eyes, and-and..." at that the boy stuttered, taking in a labored breath. Before he could continue, however, he felt a warmth upon his back, and felt the bed shift beneath him.

"For you to understand, I need to tell you a story, Naruto-kun," the old man said, his voice soft and his tone somber. "Six years ago, on the day of your birth, Konohagakure no sato faced a threat unlike any it had faced before..."

As the Hokage told the story, Naruto's face grew more and more tense. Part of him knew the truth, he knew it before the Hokage even began. But it was a minority, crushed beneath a youthful naivety that refused to accept such madness.

"So...so I am a demon."

"No, Naruto-kun, you are not," the Hokage stated firmly, his voice demanding the boy's full attention. "You are a jinchuuriki, yes, but you are also Uzumaki Naruto. No more, no less. You are not the demon sealed within you."

At that Naruto frowned, his head bowed as he stared as his lap. His thoughts derailed, however, as the Hokage's last sentence registered in his mind. "S-sealed?"

Naruto's tone all but confirmed the Hokage's fears. "_You_ altered the seal, didn't you?" the Hokage queried calmly.

Naruto, however, was nearly hysterical. "H-hai. S-she said...she said I had to. She said she'd help me."

At Naruto's words, Sarutobi frowned. If the Kyuubi was in contact with Naruto, things could end poorly, to say the least. It may even be necessary to reinforce the seal, or even seal the boy's tenketsu permanently. Such thoughts left a bad taste in his mouth, but he would do what was necessary. He could not put his concern over the boy over the livelihood of the entirety of Konoha.

Of course, at this moment he had other priorities. Placing his hand firmly on Naruto's shoulder, he gave him a slight shake. "Listen to me, Naruto-kun. If..._she_ talks to you again, I want you to tell me. And be wary. Kitsune are renowned for their trickery, do you understand?" Sarutobi queried, his voice firm, yet not threatening.

"Hai, Jiji," Naruto responded, nodding slightly. "Can I...can I have some time?"

"Of course, Naruto-kun." At that, the aged shinobi rose from his seat, moving quietly towards the door with a grace that refused to deteriorate with age.

* * *

Quietly, Sarutobi closed the door behind him with a sigh on his lips.

"You told him, didn't you, Hokage-sama?"

"Hai, Kakashi-kun, I did."

If the silver-haired ANBU had any doubt as to the Hokage's actions, he kept them well hidden. "Did you tell him about what happened to the chuunin?"

At that, the Hokage shook his head. "It wasn't necessary. The boy would feel responsible, I'm sure. He already has enough on his mind..." at that the Hokage trailed off, before sighing. "Speaking of matters of the mind...I think he's come in contact with his tenant."

Kakashi frowned at that, but otherwise refrained from responding. He knew the Hokage was fond of the boy, but he also knew the venerable shinobi wouldn't let that fondness get in the way of what had to be done...

"Kakashi-kun..."

"Hai, Hokage-sama?"

"As of now, consider yourself removed from Konoha's ANBU program."

"...nani?!"

* * *

When Naruto once more heard the sound of raindrops dancing across of pool of water, he was overcome with a feeling of unease.

Quickly, the boy stood to his feet, his eyes staring ineffectually into the familiar groom.

"Back so soon, Naruto-kun?" a lilting voice queried.

Turning around, Naruto was once more confronted with the massive bars, looming before and stretching, seemingly endlessly, into the darkness above him. The bars, however, no longer drew his attention. Instead, it was focused solely on the being contained within them.

"Who _are _you?" the boy questioned, confusion and fear clear in his gaze.

"Mmm, I think you know the answer to that, Naruto-kun," the woman replied cryptically.

"The Kyuubi no Yoko..."

"That...shall suffice. I've had many names, Naruto-kun. Many names, and many titles, stretching through the ages."

"So...you're _really_ old then."

The red-haired woman blinked, before chuckling. "Not one for tact are you, Naruto-kun?"

"Tact?" the boy questioned, his head tilted to the side.

"A lesson for another time, Naruto-kun. Tell me, why do you approach me?"

"What do you mean?" the boy questioned, even more confused then before.

"Ah, so it's not you, but the will of another..." she stated, trailing off. "Nevertheless, I see questions in your eyes. You may ask them."

"Why...why are you so nice? Aren't you supposed to be...evil?"

The woman laughed lightly, her voice warm before the laughter trailed off. "Well, Naruto-kun, if you'd really prefer..."

"N-no! That's okay," the boy interrupted. "I was...I was just curious why you weren't acting like..."

"...like a demon? Hmm, let me give you a piece of advice, Naruto-kun. It's not the wicked you need to fear, the once you revel in fear and terror, no. Far more dangerous are the quiet foes, willing and ready to bide their time..."

"And...and you're one of those?"

"Perhaps. I've time to spare, I assure you."

Gradually, Naruto felt the anxiety ease as the woman spoke. Her calm voice was such that his eyes felt heavy, and regardless of her words, he felt safe.

"You...you're the reason all the villagers hate me, aren't you?"

"In a way...yes. I fed the waves that stoked their fear...but I'm not their origin, nor were you their destination," the woman said, her voice calm and even through every word.

"I'm not sure what you mean," the boy stated, honestly, a slight frown upon his lips.

In response, the woman smiled slightly, "ah, do not worry, Naruto-kun. Understanding will come in time." At that, she sighed, a frown spreading across her lips. "Now, sleep, Naruto-kun. Some things need to remain beyond your hearing for now."

"What...do you..." the boy said little else before his eyes closed, and he began to fall towards the water flooded floor beneath him. Before he reached the ground, however, a wrinkled hand broke his fall.

"Welcome to my humble abode, Hiruzen-kun."

**

* * *

Japanese Term List/Jutsu Lis****t**

Shiki Fuujin: Dead demon consuming seal. This is the seal the Yondaime used to seal the Kyyubi into Naruto.

Hakke no Fuuin Shiki: Eigth Divination Signs Seal Technique. Used in conjunction with the Shiki Fuujin to seal the Kyuubi into Naruto, and allows the biju's chakra to enter Naruto's own.

Gogyou Fuujin: Five-element seal. This is the seal Orochimaru placed upon Naruto to inhibit his ability to channel chakra, as well as preventing him from using the Kyuubi's chakra.

Fuuja Houin: Evil sealing method. This the seal Kakashi placed upon Sasuke to help him suppress the cursed seal's influence.

Shunshin no jutsu: Body-flicker technique. A jutsu allowing high-speed movement, appearing to be teleportation to the untrained eye.

Nani: As I understand, translates to 'what'.

**A/N: **Day late, but not a dollar short! Had some account issues yesterday, so i couldn't log in to update. Ah well. this next chap is gonna be a bit late, going out of town and I'm not gonna be able to work on the next chapter all that much.

This chapter was a bit difficult for me to write. All of the scenes in particular seemed a bit...forced, and I cut out a whole section in order to keep it cohesive. Nevertheless, I'm reasonably pleased with how it turned out. Again, please read and review, any critique is **greatly** appreciated.


	4. Of the Plans of Fox and Man

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series. So please, don't sue me.**

* * *

Ninko, Chapter 4: The Plans of Fox and Man...

"Welcome to my humble abode, Hiruzen-kun," drawled the red-haired woman, a smile upon her face.

Sarutobi frowned as he looked at his 'pseudo-grandson', seemingly unconscious in his hands. It was...disturbing to consider that the demon sealed before him would be able to exert such influence on the boy. The seal must have been more damaged than he had anticipated.

The wizened Hokage's trained eyes took in his surrounding in an instant, and of particular note was the strange paper adhered to one of the metal column before him. It was split in two, as though ripped, and he saw that beneath it - on the bar itself - lay the second seal he had seen before. As of yet, it's purpose was unclear to him.

"I do not relish being referred to in such a companionable register by one such as you, Kyuubi no Yoko," Sarutobi Hiruzen responded at last. "I haven't been referred to as 'kun' in decades."

"Ah, but you are so young, '_Jiji_'_,_" the red-haired vixen replied, eyes shining mischievously. "So young, yet so close to death. _Tragic_."

"Un, I'm sure you're quite grief-stricken," the gray-haired shinobi replied, his brown eyes like stone beneath the hat of his position. A breath passed, before he continued. "I'll not let you corrupt this boy. Minato-kun's legacy won't be turned against this village," Sarutobi asserted, gently laying the blond-haired boy to the floor of his dream-scape.

"And what would you do if you are already to late?" the redhead queried.

"I'd do what must be done, for the good of the village. Better...better put to rest then ensorcelled by one such as you."

"_Yare yare!_ So _cruel_ Jiji. Would you really kill dear little Naruto-kun for being nothing but a victim of fate?" the woman asked, her voice feigning shock.

"If you forced my hand? Indeed," the Hokage replied, firmly.

"I have little doubt," the demon in human form replied, much of the levity leaving her voice. "You apes are a..._zealous_ bunch."

At that the conversation paused, an Sarutobi took the opportunity to look at the form the Kyuubi no Yoko had taken. Her red eyes shone like rubies as her piercing gaze rest upon him, and he couldn't help but note the delicacy of her features. She was clothed in a delicate red kimono, highlighted with gold-colored leaves and swirls. The choice of clothing was tasteful, but it did little to hide her physical beauty, the seductive features that kitsune of myth were renowned for evident in her form. It was difficult to connect this woman standing before him with the best that had lain siege upon the walls of Konoha.

"Like what you see, _Hiruzen-kun?_" the woman queried in a melodic tone, her words carrying a slight teasing quality.

Hiruzen's eyes were drawn back the woman's face, and his attention fell upon the fire-red hair that flowed down her back. He felt a pang in his chest at how similar such a look was to Kushina-chan. "Your appearances are aesthetically pleasing...but such things haven't mattered in years. I'm not some amorous young man you can bewitch."

The redhead pouted, "aww, so mean. Can't you let me have my fun?"

Her only response was Sarutobi's hardened gaze.

"Tch. Fine then, to business it is. Why do approach me?" she demanded, her tone lacking the frivolous quality it had possessed mere moments prior.

"I wished to see you influence on Naruto-kun. To be honest, I find the depth of it troubling. If you may influence with your illusions as you did to send the boy to sleep..."

"Minato-kun's seal was a work of art, I'd not seen a prison of caliber in millenia," the woman replied cryptically, "nevertheless, the attacks of your countryman damaged the seal. Through that, I was able to..._ensorcell_ him, as you claim."

She paused, allowing the words to sink in before she continued. "I saved his life, Hiruzen-kun. When he was alone in an alley, bleeding to death, I was his salvation. Thanks to your oversight, were it not for my intervention, he'd be in a grave," the woman asserted bluntly.

Her words struck home, and the gray-haired Hokage winced. Nevertheless, he replied with equal vehemence. "It's not a thing you'd do out of the goodness of your heart. His death would have meant your demise."

A pause, before delicate laughter flowed from the woman's lips. "Is that what my sealer desired? Oh how quaint, the mortals who would be gods!" she exclaimed, laughter still dancing past her lips.

"Oh poor, deluded man. This boys death would be little more than an _inconvenience_," she said, shaking her head as through reprimanding a child.

"You lie, demon," Sarutobi responded.

Immediately, the woman's features darkened. For a moment, all was still, before the world itself seemed to buckle beneath the Kyuubi's gaze. An aura of malevolent red chakra erupted from her form as nine red tails flowed behind her like reeds in the wind.

"Your arrogance is _astonishing_, child," the woman sneered. When Sarutobi's eyes finally returned to the woman's he noticed them warped. No longer where they the striking red of a ruby. No, instead they held all malice and power of a flame, the slitted eyes gazing upon the aged-worn shinobi as though he were mere brush to be consumed by a hungry blaze.

Sarutobi felt his heart beat in his ears, as the incredible weight of the woman's mere _gaze_ made him feel like a child, powerless before the fury of a storm. It was only through sheer mental discipline that he prevented his body from trembling.A moment passed, before she spoke once again. Her voice was devoid of any kindness or mirth it once held, it echoed with the force of the kitsune's ire. "I tire of your misplaced arrogance. Perhaps I should prove my words with action?"

Faster than Sarutobi's eyes could perceive, one of the woman's tails wrapped around the blond-haired orphan's neck and yanked him within the bars. _'The seal does not hold her?!' _His shock was replaced by fear, as the Naruto was shoved none-too-gently against the inside of the cage.

"Wait!" Sarutobi exclaimed, his voice coming out ragged as he gestured frantically for her to stop. No longer was his posture dignified and resigned; concern and fear plagued his every movement.

The woman paused, her other eight tails whipping behind her in a frenzy. A sneer, so slight as to be imperceptible, crossed her lips before disappearing in an instant.

"Please," the venerable shinobi requested, his tone far softer than before, "forgive my words. Don't punish the boy for them."

The woman paused, her head tilted to the side before she licked her lips. "You care for him deeply, don't you?" she questioned, though it was clear she knew the answer regardless. "What is he worth to you, I wonder..." the woman trailed off for a moment.

The silence of disconcerting, filled with the constant dripping that characterized this child's mindscape. With eyes, blazing with a flame momentarily tempered, the exotic woman continued. "I'd ask for something in return for sparing this boy. Six favors, in return for the six years you apes sought to be gods."

At that, the man's face began to harden, as his mind imagined every wicked demand the demon might make.

"I'll ask nothing of you that would harm those precious to you, of that...you have my word. Now choose."

A pause, little more than a heartbeat, before the venerable shinobi responded. "Deal."

With a casual flick of her tail, the demon-in-woman's-form sent the unconscious boys form into the Hokage's waiting arms. "Your first shall be easy, impudent monkey. Teach him to control chakra immediately, his wellfare depends on it."

She turned, gliding further into the darkness that enveloped her cage, her namesake tails still scything through the air, indicative of her displeasure.

"Now, begone."

* * *

Sarutobi removed his hand from young Uzumaki's forehead, and felt the weight of exhaustion settle upon his form as his head was striken by lances of pain.

The Yamanka clan techniques were useful tools, indeed. They were descended from a school of genjutsu that, as far as practitioners could tell, transferred the shinobi's awareness into the targets chakra coil's, and eventually their conscious. They were dangerous techniques, as a novice could easily lose themselves amongst the ebb and flow of their foe's chakra. It was this that led to the techniques becoming almost exclusive to the Yamankas. Their intensive training techniques enabled them to use their techniques far more safely than any other would be able to.

The all-encompassing ache that assaulted Sarutobi's every sense proved why a novice shouldn't make use of the techniques. Some of the Uchiha clan's best and brightest had been ruined when they tried to use the techniques, copied from the infamous Yamanka Inoichi with their Sharingan. It highlighted one of the doujutsu's greatest weaknesses. Though the eyes might see the technique's creation, it missed the finer details of the chakra manipulation that characterized much of Konoha's hijutsus. Even the Sharingan couldn't force its wielder's chakra to act in a way it was not accustomed.

Sarutobi scowled, wrenching his thoughts into the present. His mind was flighty, likely do to the use of the Yamanka family's techniques. The Professor though he may be, he'd never had the ability to use those techniques effectively. He believed it safe as Uzumaki Naruto was accustomed to his presence: his mind would be far less likely to oppose or, even more dangerously, assimilate his intruding chakra. The fact that the Kyuubi was in control, however...

...meant that the beast had spared him. He'd lept into the demon's jaws and provoked her with his every word, and she - no, _it_ - spared him. It assuaged a few of the aged Hokage's fears.

"It's alright, Kakashi-kun. You needn't worry, Naruto-kun is safe for now..." _...I hope._

"Hai, Hokage-sama. If there is nothing else..."

"Actually, Kakashi-kun..." the old man paused, frowning. "...there is something else. I want you to stay here. When the boy wakes up...I want you to explain chakra to him."

"...now? He's in the _hospital_. Have you gone senile?"

"I'm well aware of where he is, Kakashi-kun. I have my reasons, now, do as you are ordered," the aged shinobi commanded.

Wincing at Sarutobi's tone, Kakashi nodded his assent. "As you will it, Hokage-sama."

Turning to leave, the Hokage paused before speaking once more. "Oh, and Kakashi-kun?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama?"

"Keep your little orange book out of sight. I won't have you giving a six year-old any ideas, understood?"

Responding at first with a long suffering sigh, the masked shinobi the shinobi mumbled dejectedly. "_Hai_, Hokage-sama."

Leaving the hospital room with a smirk, the graying Hokage fought a chuckle. _'How's that for senile?'_

_

* * *

_"Heya, Cyclops-sensei!" the blond-haired boy intoned energetically.

Fighting down the urge to groan in response, the masked ex-ANBU set his eyes upon his charge as though surprised. "Oh, I almost missed you. Hello, Naruto-chan."

Despite himself, Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle at the 'bedridden' boy's energetic response. The reassuring tone of the child's perpetually accelerated heartbeat was drowned out by his reply, all but yelled back at the masked jounin. "Screw you, Cyclops-sensei! I'm not a baby, I'm six! _Six!_" Crossing his arms, the child pouted. The cuteness of the situation was washed away be the child's final retort. "Just 'cus you're half blind doesn't mean you gotta be half deaf."

The child was a bit too distracted to notice the slight twitch in silver-haired ANBU's eyes. Sighing, the infamous Sharingan Kakashi ignored the boy's inflaming words and assumed his position leaning against the door frame.

"Anyway, I trust you've been working on the exercise?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" the boy exclaimed, chuckle slightly as a slight blush crossed his features. "I tried that thing you you talked about-"

"Meditation, Naruto-chan," the silver-haired man replied in his usual tone-less voice.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, I think I felt it, but when I tried to...ya know, move it like you said I was supposed to, I...couldn't."

"Hmm," Kakashi responded. "And why couldn't you?"

"When I tried it...uh...kinda hurt. I thought I was doing something wrong, so I stopped."

Kakashi was thankful for the mask that covered his face in that moment. Children learning to interact with their chakra frequently took weeks to even become aware of it. Meditation was said to help assist with that. In a meditative state, an aspiring shinobi should have relatively little trouble focusing their chakra within themselves, guiding it toward specific tenketsu.

There was obviously a reason shinobi refrained from meditating in battle, even when they possessed the advantage of choosing the battlefield. Meditation often required a great deal of internal focus, especially for those distracted by coming confrontation. With one's senses turned outwards, be it towards a threat, the environment or even one's comrades, chakra manipulation became exponentially more difficult. Handseals mitigated that issue. It allowed a shinobi to use their body to manipulate chakra, instead of merely their mind.

However, for Naruto's chakra to cause pain when he tried to manipulate it...

"Try it once more. I'll try to see what you were doing wrong."

Nodding, Naruto assented.

Lifting up the hitai-ate, Kakashi allowed his mind to dwell momentarily on the boys words. It had taken Naruto over four days to even settle down enough to effectively meditate, and even then, even the smallest distraction threw off his concentration. For Naruto to be discover his chakra in one night...

His trail of thought was well and truly derailed by the absolutely stupefying amount of chakra being emitted from the tenketsu on Naruto's right arm. The ability to see tenketsu was a trait that made the Hyuuga clan so dangerous. The Sharingan that spun in his eye socket was only able to visualize hints of another's chakra coils, with slightly greater definition when they channeled chakra for a jutsu.

Now, however, he saw the boy's tenketsu with startling detail. This was due to the fact that the child's chakra - rivaling that of an average chuunin - was attempting to simultaneously escape through the tenketsu on the boy's arms. To be honest, it was one of the most disturbing things he'd ever seen an untrained child do.

"Naruto, _enough!_" the silver-haired nin all but shouted.

With that, the blue chakra which had been moving as a roaring river through the boy's tenketsu immediately stilled. The grimace of pain that Kakashi almost failed to notice in his surprise vanished.

Pausing for a moment, Kakashi tried to understand what his eyes had been telling him. He'd observed two anomalous factors in Naruto's chakra channeling, and he honestly didn't know which was more disturbing.

First, the child's chakra capacity was phenomenal for one his age. His reserves outstripped any genin Kakashi had ever encountered, and the boy hadn't even been trained as a shinobi. At this rate, his reserves might rival those of a Kage before he reached puberty.

Second, his chakra control was...extremely out of the ordinary. He witnessed the impossible, but Kakashi couldn't find himself to be surprised, considering the child was Minato's son. Young Naruto managed to manipulate all the chakra in his coils at once, a feat considered impossible for anyone with shinobi-level chakra reserves. It seemed the boy had absolute control over his chakra, and if Kakashi's hunch was correct, he would be absolutely incapable of performing any jutsu at present. A shinobi with "perfect" chakra control would be able to funnel the exact amount of chakra necessary into a technique, without wasting any. Similarly, they'd be able to manipulate as much chakra into a technique as necessary, up to complete chakra completion.

Both forms of chakra control required a great deal of training. A shinobi like Tsunade, renowned for her chakra control would be able to excercise both types of chakra control. Naruto, however, performed in the exact reverse from what was expected. Instead of being able to work with small, or even moderate amounts, and then gaining mastery over all his chakra, he was attempting to move all of his chakra at once without being able to segregate it into smaller amounts.

Kakashi confirmed this by trying to coach Naruto into mold smaller amounts of chakra, but the result was the same.

If Naruto couldn't regulate the amount of chakra exiting his tenketsu, he'd be unable to channel chakra into any techniques without overloading it. The first jutsu a shinobi learned, the bunshin, would likely be dispelled before creation as Naruto's chakra attempted to converge into the technique faster than he could control it. It would be akin to using a waterfall to fill a cup.

One solution would be to simply allow Naruto to mature. The chakra circulatory system grew at roughly the same rate as the body, and even for a six-year old, Naruto was decidedly diminutive. At Naruto's age, Kakashi's chakra reserves were drastically smaller than Naruto's.

Nevertheless, the Hokage would doubtlessly be displeased by such a solution. He seemed rather determined that the boy be able to use his chakra effectively...

Another solution would be to simply teach the child using a few jutsu that had no "set" chakra cap upon them. The issue, however, is that all jutsu of that sort were elemental jutsu. Jutsu of that type required extensive knowledge of chakra recomposition. If Naruto attempted to reconstitute his chakra into, say, fire, faster than said chakra could escape his tenketsu...

...he'd literally burn himself alive.

The best solution would be to simply drain a large portion of his chakra reserves. Fuunjutsu seals could accomplish that, but it would likely require a specialized array, something few shinobi in Konoha had the knowledge required to create.

Sighing, Kakashi recovered his Sharingan eye as the roiling mass of chakra in Naruto's coils finally stilled. It was fortunate he'd noticed this earlier. If Naruto's first lesson in learning chakra came in the academy, it was likely he'd inflict great injury upon his chakra coils. The silver-haired shinobi decided to ask the Hokage how he knew something was amiss with his chakra system, were it not for Sarutobi's order, Kakashi likely wouldn't have noticed the abnormality.

Giving the blond-haired shinobi a warning not to attempt to mold chakra until his return, Kakashi sealed for shunshin and dissapeared with a puff of smoke and the fluttering of leaves...

...somewhere in the hospital, a janitor groaned.

* * *

UPDATE: Cleared up the confusion pointed out by Demonkid.

**Japanese Term List/Jutsu Lis****t**

Un: I've heard it translated as being "yeah", or "alright".

Hitai-ate: Forehead protector (though not always on the forehead) bearing the insignia of a shinobi's hidden village.

Tenketsu: Similar to pores on one's skin, tenketsu allow chakra to exit the chakra circulatory system.

Sharingan: "copy-wheel eye", this is the famed doujutsu of the Uchiha clan.

Byakugan: "white eye", this is the famed doujutsu of the Hyuuga clan.

Doujutsu: A kekkei genkai centered in the eye.

Kekkei genkai: Bloodlimit.

**A/N: **Another chapter completed! You'll notice I altered the abilities of the Sharingan a bit. I tried to explain why Kakashi's "1,000 Jutsu" repertoire made him so famous. Other Uchiha lacked similar accolades from what I could tell. I made it so that the Sharingan only gave shinobi additional clues as to how chakra was molded, as opposed to an instruction manual. This would explain why seal-less jutsu such as Tsunade's super strength and the Yondaime's rasengan couldn't be copied: without hand-seals as a "road-map" for chakra manipulation, Sharingan wielders wouldn't know the finer details of chakra manipulation that would be necessary for those techniques.

I still intend to maintain the canon "prediction" abilities of the Sharingan, but I intend to alter the means in which the Byakugan and the Sharingan see "through" genjutsu, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, please review, your feedback is very helpful.

**Review Responses**

adiv: I don't want to disclose to much, but I intend to maintain the distinctive personality quirks Naruto possesses. That said, Naruto's tenant will definately have an influence on his growth, which you can see in this chapter.


	5. Of Councils and Teachers

**Disclaimer: I do not own the "Naruto" series.**

Author's note at the end of the chapter.

* * *

Ninko, Chapter 5: Of Councils and Teachers

The empty saucer of sake came to rest on the table soundlessly, as the three elders of Konoha's Council continued their conversation.

"Waiting around and leaving the boy in limbo would do nothing to inspire loyalty in the boy. Sarutobi would see him attend the shinobi academy in the spring, and there's little doubt his growth there will be stifled," Danzou stated evenly, ignoring the slightly agitated looks on the faced of the Sandaime's former teammates.

Clearing his throat, the crippled ex-shinobi continued. "The child has potential. It would be foolish to let it go to waste."

Mitokado Homura nodded, before setting down his own saucer of sake. "Fair enough. However, you're taking a great risk. Jinchuuriki are notoriously...unpredictable. It may be better to allow the child's potential to simply stagnate, there are other bright stars in his generation."

"That is assuming the child is only dangerous as a shinobi," Danzou replied levelly. "Even if he were to live life as a civilian, simply losing control of his body to his tenant would be catastrophic, knowledge of shinobi techniques or no."

"However," Danzou added, after a short pause, "if we manage to endear the boy to Konoha - inspire within him a desire to protect the village - then that is the ultimate safeguard. What use is a prison that has no urge to hold it's prisoner?"

At this, Koharu snorted. "Then teach him to be a med-nin. Keep him off the field of battle where there's less chance of the Kyuubi finding an opportunity to escape."

At this, Homura chuckled. "Come now, Koharu-chan, can you see the container of the Kyuubi no Yoko relegated to the duties of a _med-nin_? It would be a waste of potential. _If_ we were to have the boy trained, we might as well make full use of him."

"Your opinion is noted, _Mitokado-san_," Koharu replied icily. "Nevertheless, he's too young. There's no reason to not just send him to the academy for a few years. We don't want another Itachi on our hands..."

Danzou sighed. "Don't tell me you've bought into the nonsense? You know very well why he did what he did..."

The old woman scoffed. "The boy was dangerous. He was a loose canon, it was merely convenient the way things turned out. And we're straying from the issue at had here."

At that, Homaru spoke once more. "_Utatane-san_ does have a point. We could just let the boy stick with the academy cirriculum for now. Perhaps when he's older, or after he graduates..."

At this Danzou sighed. It was difficult swaying the opinions of these two. They'd been teammates for years, and their personalities functioned with a form of dichotomy that was nigh impossible to overcome. The only recourse left was clear.

"Your opinions are noted, but in the end, irrelevant," Danzou stated firmly, abandoning all pretense of discourse. "I'm not here for your opinions, I'm here for your support. I already have Sarutobi's, and with yours, the next council meeting will be a forgone conclusion."

"You went behind our backs?" Homaru queried, surprise clear in his bespectacled eyes.

"And Sarutobi agreed?" Koharu finished.

"Hai. Your support would be convenient, but it's not necessary. Understand, however, the price you two shall have to pay if you oppose me in this," the bandaged shinobi remarked ominously.

Sighing, Homaru glanced toward his female teammate, and they locked eyes for a mere moment, saying all that needed to be said wordlessly. "Fine, Danzou. You have our support. However, if you are wrong about this child, it's on your head."

"Understood."

* * *

"_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

Sighing, the Sandaime Hokage brought his pipe to his lips and breathed in the cherry-flavored smoke, hoping the tobacco would allow him to master the incredulity dominating his features.

"He's not even a genin. In fact, he's not even an _academy student_, and you want to teach him a jounin-rank kinjutsu?" the Sandaime sighed once more, before locking eyes with Kakashi. His features showed he was clearly not amused, and despite himself, the former ANBU couldn't maintain the blase demeanor when confronted with the infamous "God of Shinobi".

"His chakra reserves are just too large, and unless you want to wait until he reaches puberty, he'll probably never be able channel chakra without damaging his chakra circulatory system. However, if he splits the reserves between two or three bunshin, his reserves should be equivalent to those of other children his age."

"Yes, and should he attempt to split it between a dozen bunshin, he could suffer fatal chakra exhaustion. He's a child, Kakashi-kun, they are prone to being irresponsible. He could easily endanger his life with that technique" Sarutobi replied, his voice somber.

"He doesn't have the opportunity to be a child, Hokage-sama. I'll make sure he understands the risks-"

"There's a reason academy students don't learn advanced jutsu, Kakashi-kun..."

"-and I'll watch him," Kakashi continued, as though never interrupted. "It's the reason you had me leave ANBU anyway, and..." the silver-haired ex-shinobi trailed off at the hardened gaze that the Sandime directed at him.

'_I'm getting soft...'_ the old man realize woefully. He realized what Kakashi wanted to say, even though he couldn't. He wanted to be there for the boy, as Minato was for him, and as Minato _would_ have been for his son.

"So be it. You'll be given the C-rank mission of watching over Uzumaki Naruto, for an indefinite period of time. If he happens to see you using a certain kinjutsu...well, he always was an adventurous lad. Beyond that...I'll see what I can do."

"_Arigatou,_ Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, standing with a slight bow. Though not in his distinctive "eye-smile", the gratitude was clear in Kakashi's coal-black eye.

"Things are changing on Konoha, and Naruto-kun is at the center of a maelstrom...be on your guard."

"Hai."

* * *

"_Kuso!_"

"Aren't you a little young to be using language like that, Naruto-kun?"

"_Gomen-nasai..._" the blond haired boy responded, eyes rolling and tone lacking in sincerity, "...Cyclops-sensei."

Kakashi decided to allow the boy to get away with his little quip, and instead focused on the situation at hand. As he pondered the situation, his eyes were drawn to the foliage, which covered every corner of the training ground. Crisp, green blades of grass danced in the light breeze as the occasional yellow-brown leaf descended from the branches of age and shinobi-worn trees. It was nearing the end of autumn, and it had been three days since Kakashi had spoken with the Hokage.

The Council was to convene early tomorrow morning, which left an almost alien feeling of anxiety settling in Kakashi's gut. He'd never been bothered overmuch by village politics in the past. Sensei had always kept a tight leash on the village during his reign as Hokage, or so it seemed. Doubtless, the Council was hesitant to take an liberties during a period of war. Now though, in a time or relative peace, they were more than willing to test their boundaries.

This is what led Kakashi to throw the previous day's caution to the wind. Should he be forced to cut his ties to the little blond-haired orphan after tomorrow morning's Council Meeting, he wanted to ensure the boy had the tools he needed to succeed. He owed it to the boy...

As it was, the boys progress was spectacular, not that he'd admit that to him, it wouldn't do to let him get a big head. His Sharingan eye spun lazily in it's socket as he watched the boy's latest attempt.

"_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_

Despite himself, Kakashi winced. He'd have to break the boy out of the habit quickly. A shinobi who shouted their techniques was one unfit for duty beyond handling simple bandits. As it was, though, vocalizing the technique would help him concentrate, and at this age, he could use every advantage he could get.

Since _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_ didn't channel chakra through specific tenketsu, it didn't but nearly as much strain on Naruto's chakra circulatory system. As it was, Kakashi was able to see his chakra attempt to coalesce into a mass, yet it was moving in an orderly enough fashion to be able to create a stable bunshin. In the end, it would require practice. It would be far easier if the child understood the basics of bunshin, but as of now, he did not.

There was another alternative, of course. It would be more than possible to create a sealing array capable of draining the boys chakra, but it would be difficult to determine how exactly the seal would interact with the Shiki Fuujin that kept the Kyuubi sealed. The ability to combine seals is what separates a seal user from a seal master, and not even Jiraya had the capability the Yondaime did in that regard.

Sighing, Kakashi watched the boy make yet another attempt at the jutsu, once more resulting in little success. Spectacularly, the chakra that left the boys body returned after the bunshin dispelled. It was a trait that Kage Bunshin possessed, but Kakashi was surprised to discover it proved true with the unformed doppelgangers. If he hadn't been receiving the chakra back, he'd quickly fall into chakra exhaustion from constantly halving his reserves. The boy was clearly running himself ragged. His pallor was paler than it once was, and his eyes seemed to have lost a bit of their lively hue, likely due to fatigue.

Kakashi realized the boy's body had likely yet to recover from the ordeal that placed him in the hospital in the first place. To strain his body so quickly was ill-advised, regardless of his stupendous healing. However, there was nothing medically wrong with him, and it was a very real concern that if the boy had been kept in the hospital much longer, something would give. Likely expensive medical machinery.

Uzumaki Naruto was certainly determined, Kakashi would admit that. _'Minato-sensei always said Kushina was rather...bull-headed. Must be where he got it from.'_

Naruto was clearly a natural with shinobi techniques, and privately Kakashi couldn't help but wonder what would have been had Minato survived. At Naruto's age, Kakashi was already a chuunin, leading adults into battle for Konohagakure no Sato. Would Minato have wanted his son to have a childhood? To grow up amongst peers, not comrades-in-arms?

"Yo, Cyclops-sensei..." Naruto ventured suddenly, his voice carrying a whining quality.

"Hai, Naruto-chan?" Kakashi replied.

Ignoring the honorific, Naruto continued, "why the heck isn't this dang clone thing working?" Sighing, the boy crossed his arms, falling gracelessly to the ground before crossing his legs in front of him.

"Eh, you must not be trying hard enough, Naruto-chan," Kakashi replied, his bored tone and slouched posture giving an appearance of total disinterest. "Perhaps you're just to young to learn shinobi techniques. Perhaps I should tell the Hokage you need to wait another year..."

Naruto's eyes burned with fire and he jumped back to his feet. "Not on your life, Cyclops-sensei! I'll learn this stupid jutsu before the day's end! Dattebayo!"

Smirking beneath his mask, Kakashi refrained from responding: it wasn't needed. Already the boy was putting his hands into the familiar cross-shaped seal, and shouting out the technique at the top of his lungs. Frankly, the veteran shinobi was glad he'd chosen a remote training ground for this little escapade, the blond-haired orphan had no tact or delicacy.

Resolve, though. _That,_ he had in spades.

* * *

The night's bitter chill did little to bother the boy, though he was lightly clothed. He was on a _mission_. Sure, it was a mission of his own design, but _still!_ What kind of want-to-be-shinobi would he be if he failed his first mission?

The day had ended in failure, a fact which left him feel disappointed, the weight of failure setting upon his shoulders like a mantle made of stone. He thought Cyclops-sensei was a bit disappointed too, but it was hard to see when he kept his face covered. He might have just been bored.

_'Focus, dangit! I have to do this!'_

Naruto couldn't help but ignore the fact that every second wasted felt like a precious commodity lost. The deadline he'd set for himself seemed so important, so very important, and honestly he couldn't say why! He hated to break a promise, but this felt...different. Alien. As though the need was not his, rather he was a puppet moving as another beckoned...

His thoughts were interrupted by a cough, and then another, and one more, until he was having a full-blown coughing fit. Naruto had never been a sickly child, and the feeling of illness settling into his body was unnerving. He knew he should probably tell Jiji, but if he did, he'd end up going back to the hospital, and if he had to spend another day in that room, he'd go stir-crazy.

Looking around despite himself, Naruto made sure noone was around before he got started. It wouldn't do to get stumbled on by Kiyone-obasan, now would it? Then, he'd be in _trouble_.

_'Heh, another perfect escape. I'm practically a ninja already!'_

Forming the unique handseal, Naruto announced - more quietly then before, though - "_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_

Once again, a puff of smoke appeared at his command, and he _felt_ the chakra leave his coils, and it felt as though a great pressure had been released. However, no more than a moment later it returned, and the smoke cleared to reveal nothing.

"_Kuso!_ Why won't this stupid technique work?!"

It sounded so simple when Cyclops-sensei explained it! Just form the handseal like so, say the technique and poof! Instant clone! The lazy ninja had even demonstrated, and he made it look easy! Putting his fingers into the cross-shaped seal, Naruto prepared to channel his chakra for another attempt. _'I'll show that one-eyed jerk! Not trying hard enough huh? I'll not only make clones, I'll make more than he did! I'll show that masked wierdo I have what it takes to be a ninja!'_

"_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_

Suddenly, Naruto felt the chakra leave his veins far more rapidly then it had before, and instead of one puff of smoke, there were several. As the smoke cleared, he saw them. Bunshin!

Sure, the skin tone was off, the hair was drooping and quite a bit more subdued a shade then his own, but they were there, and moving! All six of em! Wait a minute...six? _'Didn't Cyclops-sensei say something about...'_

Suddenly, the mantle of stone that rested upon his shoulders turned into a boulder, and he let himself collapse into the soft green grass beneath him.

* * *

"You know, gaki..." a voice ventured, as Naruto gradually became more aware of his surroundings, "...we really have to stop meeting like this."

Opening his eyes, Naruto was met once more by the dreary expanse of his mindscape. And standing within the bars of of her prison was his tenant, a look of exasperation clear on her face, while her ruby-red eyes shone with barely-suppressed joy,

"Nevertheless, I see the old monkey kept up his part. It's good that you're here, I have something I need you to do."

* * *

**Japanese Term List/Jutsu List:**

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Shadow Clone Technique. Since Naruto is roughly half the age he was at the beginning of the canon series, it's going to take him quite a bit longer than a few hours to learn this technique. I skipped most of the build-up, though, since it would only serve as filler. And I _hate_ filler.

Kuso: Roughly translating into "damn" or other similar profanity.

Bunshin: Clone.

Kinjutsu: Forbidden jutsu.

**A/N:** Well, when I read out on the world wide web that Kakashi had become a chuunin at age 6, I felt like a lot less of a failure designing adolescent personas. Naruto still seems a bit too mature to me, but hopefully I'll be able to mitigate that in the next few chapters.

Anyway, I'm doing some updates to the previous chapters of this story, and those should go through at roughly same time as this chapter, so if any of your alert boxes get spammed, I apologize, I miss things on the first couple run throughs, and I haven't found a beta yet.

Sorry for this being a bit on the late AND short side, but I just got back from a vacation, and so my writing time was cut short, since I didn't have easy access to a computer while I was away. Just a warning, updates might be a bit sporadic from now on. I'll try to keep up the once a week pace, though.

I have a question for you all though: Anyone know a suitable Japanese term for cyclops that I can use? My _extremely limited_ knowledge of the language basically begins and ends with what the handfully of terms I've sprinkled into this fanfiction.


	6. Of Fate and Fortune

**Disclaimer: I do not own the "Naruto" series.**

**

* * *

**Ninko, Chapter 6: Of Fate and Fortune

"You know, this is the second time you've been on deaths door in under a month. I'm starting to wonder how you apes live to puberty," the red-headed woman said dryly, her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at her jailor.

Noticing the look of confusion on the six year old's face, she sighed. "Nevermind. We don't have much time. As of right now, you've split your chakra so many your chakra is fatally depleted. Your clones won't even have the ability to dispel themselves to return the chakra to your coils. You'll be dead within minutes."

"_Nani?!_" the boy replied, shock and fear dancing in his cerulean eyes.

"Oi, oi, calm down," the woman replied, waving her hand dismissively as she strolled towards, and _through_ the bars. "Have you been feeling...ill, lately? Perhaps more tired than usual?"

"Yeah, but I'll be feeling a lot _more_ tired if I'm dead!" the boy exclaimed, clearly put out by the woman's passive demeanor. His anxiety quickly bled into fear when the woman's features darkened.

"Watch your tongue, _gaki_, let I rip it out. I'll not tolerate your attitude, especially not when I'm saving your miserable life."

The intensity of the woman's gaze caused him to turn his head away, and his demeanor was that of a chastised child: shoulders slumped and head bowed. "G-gomen nasai, Onee-chan."

At the boy's words, the woman's eyes softened, yet her face spread into a predatory grin. _'Onee-chan? So desperate for contact he'd turn towards a demon? This will all be simpler than I had expected'_

The grin vanished from her face as she glided silently towards the boy. Kneeling to the small boy's eye level, she put her hand on his cheek, gentle directing his eyes to hers. "You are forgiven, Naruto-kun. Now, are you willing to listen?"

After a short pause, the boy nodded.

"You're growing ill due to my chakra stagnating in your coils. It's foreign to your body, so it's poisonous to it, do you understand?" The fact that it was youki went unmentioned, a talk for another time, when the child's eyes no longer shined with fear of death. "I need you to place your hand on the seal and channel your remaining chakra into it."

"B-but won't losing all my chakra-"

"Trust me, Naruto-kun. Have I led you astray yet?" the woman asked, her voice gentle and soothing.

Shaking his head, the boy strode toward the seal. The paper section remained, but beneath it lay another, carved _into_ the very bar. As he extended his hand, the woman placed hers atop his, and gently directed it towards the metal section. Closing his eyes, he grabbed the chakra remaining in his coils, and _pushed_.

Before the very last vestiges of chakra left his body, he felt the woman behind him pull his hand away as his vision darkened and his knees buckled.

'_Mm, mm, decisions, decisions...To save the warden, or flee the prison whilst the path is wholly unbarred...'_

Turning the unconscious child around, the red-haired woman shoved him against the metal column and placed a finger to his forehead.

'_I'll save you my little warden, for you'll yet become my pet...'_

_

* * *

_When the unconscious blond-haired orphan began to breath once again, Kakashi let out a sigh of relief. The thought of telling the Sandaime that Naruto had perished from lethal chakra exhaustion while performing Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was not a pleasant thought.

Warily, Kakashi placed the soldier pill pack into one of the many pockets on his jounin's vest. On a boy so young, making use of the chakra restoring pill would be extremely taxing on the body. It was something to be avoided.

The clones that Naruto had made lay prone on the ground, and the gray-haired shinobi leaned over to one, grabbing it's chin and tilting it's head up. Staring into exhausted clone's eyes, Kakashi cleared his throat. "Yo, Naru-chan. Pull a stunt like that and you won't be eating ramen for a month, got it?"

Naturally, the clone didn't respond, as it barely had the chakra to maintain a solid form, let alone move. Casually, Kakashi flicked the clone in the forehead, and the chakra construct dispelled.

The lazy jounin repeated this process with the five other clones, changing the wording slightly every time to make each one clearly individual. Doing such came with the benefit of teaching the boy secret behind _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_...

_'...and making sure the little blond bastard remembers what I told him.'_

Kakashi had followed the whiskered orphan to the training ground, knowing the child would pull this stunt. He hadn't expected the boy to actually complete the jutsu, let alone summon six relatively valid clones. Though they weren't up-to-snuff for an elite shinobi - the hair varied between three and five shades lighter, the clothing was inconsistent in regards to stains, and one of them had lacked the distinctive whisker marks - for a six-year old, it was an astonishing success.

"To master a jounin-level kinjutsu in under a week..." Kakashi declared, shaking his head in mild disbelief.

"...he truly is Minato-kun's son," an aged voice replied.

Turning suddenly, Kakashi attempted to school the look of shock from his features. "H-hokage-sama..." the jounin stated, his heart racing despite himself. _'I didn't even sense him...even decades past his prime, he truly is the "God of Shinobi".'_

"It seems young Naruto-kun's tenant has intervened once more..." the Hokage stated quietly, a frown on his lips. "The boy should be dead. Twice now, in under a month. _Kami_, when did we start killing our _children?_"

It was then that Kakashi witnessed a sight he had never though he'd see. The Hokage stood, but no longer was his stance confident and regal. No, it was weighted down by the weight of village-full of lives, a village full of dreams. In the waning starlight, Sarutobi's face was dominated by shadow, the marks age had worn into his skin all the more prominent. To see such a man - Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, the _brightest_ shinobi of his generation - laid low, was humbling. And extremely disconcerting.

"You can only do what you feel is best..." Kakashi proposed unsteadily, his voice a whisper as he turned his head away. It seemed...wrong to look upon the wizened shinobi at such a moment of weakness. For all the man had done, he deserved such a reprieve. Instead, he focused once more on the prone form of Uzumaki Naruto, watched as his chest rose and fell as color returned to his cheeks.

"Tomorrow, his fate will be decided, once again," the Hokage said simply. "His life will be taken and molded as will best benefit the village. He's a shinobi now, whether he wishes it or not. All that remains is the question of time." At that the Hokage paused, turning his gaze to stare at the lightless new moon as it continued his silent vigil over the land."Was it cruel of me to wish to hide that truth from the boy? To let him believe he had a choice? That his life was _his_?"

Kakashi didn't reply, for there were no words to say. In the least, no words he had to say. He simply stared at his late sensei's son, and watched his chest rise and fall. In and out, in a rhythm of life.

"Take him back to the orphanage, Kakashi, before he catches a cold."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

Without another word, Kakashi stooped over and took hold of the small child, and disappeared into the night. In his wake he left a weary old man with a burden far to great for his age-ravaged shoulders, staring up into the star-speckled sky and remembering his failures.

* * *

"The date is October the 30th," Mitokado Homura stated evenly, his voice cutting through the murmurs that filled the council chambers with easy. "I hereby call this meeting to order."

At the elder's command, the chamber grew silent within mere moments. On some - particularly members of the civilian council - looks of confusion were evident. Taking a deep breath, Homura forged on. "This council has convened to discuss a specific matter of great importance to the village, proposed by we as the Council Elders," at this Homura indicated himself, Koharu and Danzou, "in addition to Hokage-sama."

At this, the murmurs began anew, and it was no great surprise. The Council Elders and Sarutobi were frequently at odds with one another in regards to the administrative matters of Konohagakure no Sato. As Sarutobi had lost a fair amount of his prestige as he grew older and seemingly more complacent, more often than not the civilian council sided with the Elders, whilst the shinobi council was frequently divided. For the Elders and the Hokage to speak as one voice was nigh unheard of.

Homura allowed the conversation to die down on its own. Allowing the councilmen and woman to speculate would only be beneficial. If their minds were occupied with other matters, it would be easy to use the prestige of his position to force a positive vote.

"The matter at hand is the fate of Uzumaki Naruto," Homura stated simply.

The chamber erupted in a roar of activity as the boy's named left his mouth. _'Now, that won't do.'_

Lifting up the gavel, Homura lifted it and brought in down with a punishing smash, reinforcing the wood with chakra to avoid shattering the dainty object. The sound was akin to an explosive note, echoing through the council chambers and silencing all conversation immediately. "On October the 10th, young Uzumaki Naruto was assaulted by an inebriated chuunin and hospitalized," Homura stated, his tone somber. _'And now, for the gamble,'_ thought Homura worriedly. "Though the chuunin was intercepted by ANBU during the attack, and Uzumaki Naruto was immediately taken to the hospital, the severity of the wound was such that any normal child would have perished. Without a doubt, there was outside intervention in the matter."

Once again, the chamber erupted in a bustle of activity, except this time it was tinged with a near palpable feeling of anxiety and mania. From the civilian sections of the council, Homura's ears caught mention of the words 'Beast', 'Demon' and 'Released'. It was clear they had seen 'the underneath' behind his words, as expected. Calmly, he watched the men and woman he had allied himself with stir up carefully controlled alliances of dissent. He had chosen men and woman who either possessed positions of great power, or a great deal of natural charisma.

His eyes were drawn to the unique bubble-gum pink of Haruno Senna's hair, and he noted the woman definately fell into the latter category. The Harunos were a small family, too slight in both prestige and size to be considered a proper clan. Nevertheless, she was appointed by her districts people as a representative due to her innate magnetism, drawing people to her like moths to a flame. She skillfully riled up her section and took a position of dominance amongst it, like the others he had tasked for this matter. He allowed this to play out for a few more minutes before he lifted his gavel.

While it may seem counter-productive to sponsor his own opponents, in the end he was simply rounding them up behind individuals he could trust. If he cannot eradicate their fears, he would control them. Haruno Senna was one of the individuals he trusted to nudge to civilian populace towards compliance, and judging by the size of the posse she had around her, she had done her job well.

Glancing over the meeting room, he affirmed that his people had completed thier tasks. Once confident in this, he brought the implement down with an echoing boom, and the shinobi section of the council quieted almost immediately. However, the civilian council continued, filling the council chambers with a din of fear and paranoia, and he fought the urge to grin. Glancing subtly towards Sarutobi, he nodded.

Immediately, the very air in the council chambers stilled, before buckling as the Sandaime Hokage rose to his feet. Passion shone in his eyes, and the force of his chakra was _stifling_. "_**Enough!**_" the aged Hokage all but roared, and the civilian council _immediately_ quieted, cowed by a forcefulness Sarutobi had not shown in over a decade.

"You are representatives of the citizens of Konoha!" the Hokage exclaimed, his voice impassioned and echoing through the chamber. "Yet you act like _children_ in the face of a coming storm: shouting and crying, given reason over to mania!"

At the Hokages word, Homura's 'agents' once again took their seats, seemingly cowed by the Hokage's words. Bringing his hands infront of his mouth, the council elder allowed a ghost of a smile to slip over his lips. With the 'representatives' apparently humbled by the Hokage's words, the 'rank-and-file' of the civilian council will be off guard. With the momentum of their movement derailed, the shinobi council would have a rare opportunity to take the helm. Without another word, the Head of the Hyuuga Clan, Hyuuga Hiashi rose to his feet.

Hyuuga Hiashi, as well as his late twin Hizashi, where both genin in Homura's second genin team. Consequently, the two had a bit of an accord from their years together. Silently, he thanked the stoic man for taking the helm. "Forgive us, Hokage-sama. I am sure my fellow councilmen are simply concerned about the news. I assume you gathered us here on such short notice because you've discovered a solution," Hiashi remarked, his tone clipped and formal.

"Indeed we have, Hyuuga-sama," Homura replied, bringing the council's focus back to him. He made certain to refer to his formal teammate in a formal register to avoid accusations of corroboration. "The orphanage is no longer a safe enough home for the boy."

At this, his pink-haired agent spoke up. "Yet this brings us back full circle. This Council ruled adoption as too dangerous, lest someone unreliable get their hands on him." The Haruno's voice was powerful, and demanded attention. The civilians showed their support of her point with nods and scattered applause.

_'It's a pity she's not a shinobi, she certainly knows how to play people...'_ Homura reflected. Banishing his thoughts, he replied to the woman's concerns with the same even, almost-bored tone. "Indeed, which is why he is to be adopted by an individual outside of any recognized clan. Specifically, the jounin Hatake Kakashi, student of the Yondaime Hokage. His knowledge of fuuinjutsu is second only to Jiraya-sama and Hokage-sama's."

"As an ANBU operative, wouldn't he be far too busy to watch over a child? It was the reason he did not adopt the boy originally," the pink-haired woman remarked.

"Hatake-san is no longer a member of ANBU," Homura stated evenly, and his words were met by gasps of surprise. The infamous Sharingan Kakashi was considered the next best candidate to take up the mantle of ANBU Commander. "While I may not comment on his motivations for leaving ANBU, he is uniquely capable of looking over Uzumaki Naruto, due to his...condition. I trust you do not doubt Hatake-san's expertise?"

"Of course not, Elder-san," Haruno Senna replied, but her approval of the plan was short lived. "However, is it wise to have the..._boy_... in the custody of one of Konoha's premier jounin? He may pick up a thing or too that _children_ should not know..."

"That is precisely the point, Haruno-san," the gruff voice of Danzou cut in, speaking for the first time since the meeting began. "Uzumaki Naruto has a great deal of potential, and frightening amounts of power. We cannot simply leave him in limbo and hope he turns out..._reliable_." Pausing for a moment, Danzou surveyed the room before continuing. "With Kakashi to oversee his development as a shinobi, any crises of 'character' can be identified and dealt with appropriately."

Danzou's words prompted a flurry of activity, and once more Homura allowed his agents to play their parts. With suitable hesitance, they voiced support, whilst proposing various measures that did little but make the civilian council feel as though they had an influence on these descions. In Homura's mind, however, tehy didn't. Though not a shinobi in rank, Uzumaki Naruto was never, and would never be a civilian. He was destined to change the face of Konoha, for good or ill. He was remiss to allow Danzou to take the reigns in the boy's development, but such things couldn't be avoided. Having Kakashi as Naruto's legal guardian ensured that Danzou wouldn't make another Ne member out of the jinchuuriki.

He allowed Koharu to take the helm and manage the finer details. With 'environment' of the Council Chambers as it was, she would best know when and where to give ground, something he always had difficulty with. His talents lay with inspiring the atmosphere he desired, a process carried over to the political sphere from his specialization in genjutsu as a shinobi.

Koharu, however, was better at reading individuals, seeing the unspoken truth behind their words. It was no great surprise, though. A kenjutsu specialist would have to be able to skillfully read people, and though she no longer held the title as Konoha's premier swords(wo)man, she was putting her skills as a shinobi to good use in the political domain.

The two of them made a powerful pair. Though they may not have the prestige of their third teammate, Sarutobi Hiruzen, they were nonethless influencial. The office of the Hokage was Sarutobi's, but this Council chamber was _theirs_.

Nevertheless, their prestige mattered little in this matter. The boy, Uzumaki Naruto, had the unfortunate to bring out the worst in people with his mere mention. The debate within the Council Chamber raged on, and it proved to be one of the longest sessions regarding a single topic the council had ever held.

Council had begun at 6:00 AM, and four hours had passed discussing the fate of young Uzumaki Naruto. Homura was drawn from his reverie by the sound of Koharu bringing the gavel down, piercing through the remaining conversations. "Return to your seats, councilmen," the woman demanded simply. "Now, are there any motions on the floor?"

Complete and utter silence filled the room, something which Homura found troubling. Members of the Civilian Council shared glances, many of them directed towards Haruno Senna and his other 'agents', and he couldn't fight the momentary anxiety which pulsed in his veins. Should this fail, the Council Elders would lose a great deal of clout, there would be no second chances.

"Very well," Koharu stated calmly. "Regarding the custody of Uzumaki Naruto, in addition to his training as a shinobi, in respect to the measures outlined by Council Elders Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, and Danzou, in addition to the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen..." she paused, ensuring all attention came to the Council Elder's dias, "...all those for?"

Cloth rustled, and hands pierced the air. The scribe took count, and at a nod, the woman continued. "All those against?" Once again, movement could be heard through the chamber. The scribe stood, walked over the Hokage's podium, laying the tally before the Village Leader's eyes.

When Mitokado Homura glanced over, he noticed the Hokage's face was grim. "Gomen-nasai..." Sarutobi murmured beneath his breath "...Naruto-kun."

* * *

**Japanese Term List/Jutsu List**

Onee-chan: In this instance, sister.

**A/N:** I'd say this is my biggest cliffhanger yet in this story, hehe. Now _should_ be the point where I tell you I won't be updating for a month for whatever reason, but I'm not that mean. I'm probably going to be moving the normal update schedule to Mondays from now on, to give me more time on the weekend to write these chapters. School started today, so my chapters might end up being late, or shorter to compensate. Next chapter is going to change things a bit, and bring the story into the "core" of the plot. Just warning, there will be multiple Original Characters, a necesity that I hope you all will understand.

Anyway, I want to say that I'm very grateful to those who've reviewed this story, it really helps motivate me to continue writing it. To those who've yet to, **please review**, share your critique positive or negative. This is my first delving into fanfiction, and any observations you make will be very beneficial.


	7. Of Futures Lost

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Naruto series. It does make a darn good sandbox, though!

Author's Note at the end of the chapter.

* * *

Ninko, Chapter 7: Of Futures Lost

_"I have another favor for you, Hiruzen-kun..."_

* * *

Errant sunbeams alighted upon his closed eyes, and despite himself, Naruto groaned.

The blond-haired boy pulled his pillow over his face, attempting to stave off the waking world for as long as possible. "It can't be morning yet..." the boy mumbled into his pillow.

It came as little surprise to the boy when he received nary a response.

His plot to revolt against the coming day was undone when his alarm clock began its infernal squawking. Pulling the pillow off his face, Naruto glared at the inanimate agent of discord as though it were a mortal foe. "Traitor," the boy mumbled under his breath, "I give you a place to rest and outlet for power, and yet you wage war upon my sleep!"

Naturally, his tactless foe simply continued making an infernal racket, until the blond-haired child yanked the chord out of the outlet with a feeling of grim satisfaction.

"If your done conversing with your _alarm clock_," a voice intoned, "you really should get to the academy, you don't want to be late for your most important day as an academy student, do you?"

Turning, the blond-haired child regarded his guardian with a look of bemusement. "Your the absolute last person who should be scolding another's tardiness, Cyclops-sensei."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just get ready, Naru-chan," the gray haired shinobi replied listlessly.

Sighing, Naruto acquiesced. Three years had passed since the fateful council meeting, in which Naruto's guardianship had been turned over towards Kakashi, and he began instruction under Bandage-san's _friends_.

Slipping out of his pajamas, the academy student pulled on his clothes. Glancing forlornly at the orange and blue jumpsuit he'd received on his birthday last month, Naruto pulled a pair of pants similar to that Konoha's standard issue shinobi gear, except a full black in lieu of the standard navy blue. In addition, he wore a black fishnet shirt beneath a dark red shirt, with the former's sleeves ending just above his elbow and the latter's an inch or two higher. The red shirt ended in a slight v-neck, showing the fishnet shirt beneath it.

Pulling the red shirt over himself, he began the task of wrapping his wrists with thick bandages. It was a chore, but it insured a shinobi always had easy access to a tourniquet. After wrapping his wrists, he moved on to his mid-thigh, wrapping the at roughly the location his kunai holster would rest against his leg. Finally, he slid on black leather wrist-guards over the bandages, and finished with putting on some plain black fingerless gloves. Turning towards the mirror he groaned, not a speck of orange to be found. Groaning, he pulled a simple, black, long-sleeved haori that ended just above his knees, with sleeves that extended past his hands. It made him look even younger than his nine years, and he scowled at his whiskered reflection.

Walking out of his room, Naruto moved into the kitchen and was surprised to find a breakfast waiting on the wooden table. A simple meal of eggs, toast and bacon, though even that was a rarity. Settling himself into his seat, Naruto didn't bother to hide the look of confusion that spread over his face. "Back a week early _and_ had time to make breakfast? How'd you manage that, Cyclops-sensei?"

His question was a reasonable one. Sharingan Kakashi was an infamous shinobi, and he spent more time outside of the village than in. His notoriety was such that many wealthy clients selected him by name, even for tasks well below his skills. It was part of the reason the man had yet to gain a genin team: he brought in more money of the village of Konoha than any other single shinobi. An unfortunate consequence was that Naruto virtually lived alone. How the one-eyed jounin avoided burnout could only be explained by his lackadaisical demeanor, chronic tardiness and obsession with publicly reading smut: he took personal time whenever the opportunity presented itself.

"The mission didn't take nearly as long as anticipated. It wasn't a contracted mission this time, it was an assignment by Hokage-sama. I was to lead a team on a patrol near the border of Hi no Kuni and send one of the ANBU in Iwa to rendezvous with a spy. Our man was already waiting for us when we arrived near the border," Kakashi said, simply.

The blond-haired boy frowned, scrutinizing the small patch of skin his sensei and guardian left uncovered. "You're hiding something from me," the boy stated bluntly.

Sighing, Kakashi looked up from his food. _'He's certainly progressing well. If I let my guard down, the boy can read me like a book...'_ the shinobi thought, proudly. _'...I only wish I could be the one to help him grow.'_

While Kakashi had a hand in Naruto's development, he simply wasn't present nearly enough to be a constant instructor for the child. As it was, teaching the child a technique of any real difficult would be nearly impossible, as he jounin was often away for week or months at a time. Any advice or guidance would have to wait for short periods between missions: dangerous, when teaching a child so young the arts of a shinobi. Especially once with Naruto's...condition.

It was what necessitated Danzou's intervention in the boy's life. At first, Kakashi had loathed the Hokage's decision to allow the warmongerer to instruct the boy, but he understood that it was necessary. Naruto had grown into a capable child, his skills easily put him on par with genin twice his age and experience. Nevertheless, the decision had more subtle ramifications. With Danzou given the ability to oversee Naruto's training, an uneasy alliance was formed between Danzou and the Sandaime. With the two united behind a single goal, the Council's influence over the village's politics was marginalized. Though it was an underhanded tactic, with the cold war between Iwa and Konoha escalating, swift movement was necessary. It was the only plausible solution short of declaring open war and giving the Hokage complete control over village matters. Of course, such an action would have cataclysmic ramifications, and could spark another shinobi war.

"Yo, Cyclops-sensei! Don't you ignore me you one eyed basta-"

"Oi, calm down Naru-chan. No need to throw a tantrum," Kakashi replied coolly, "if you're going to act your age, perhaps you should be put back into the class with your peers?" Kakashi questioned, subtly steering the conversation away from his previous mission. It was underhanded, but he didn't want to discuss it with the impressionable lad. The reason it was such a simple mission was because the spy had been nailed to a tree with a ninjatou near the border. Iwa's counter-intelligence had stepped up it's game, and it was unlikely the war would remain in the shadows much longer at this rate.

"Psh, nice try Cyclops-sensei! It's too late for you to make that threat."

"Are you certain about that?"

"...y' know, these are _really_ good eggs."

"Why, thank-you Naru-chan!" Kakashi replied with his signature eye-smile.

Conversation from there mostly consisted of small talk and their normal banter. It was hardly a normal family dynamic. In the orphanage, Naruto had grown into an extremely independent child, with little respect for authority. Kakashi, on the other hand, saw little need to exercise authority unless the situation absolutely demanded it. Dysfunctional though it may be, the blond-haired orphan wouldn't trade it for the world.

"So tell me, Naruto-kun, what did you learn while I was away?" the silver haired shinobi queried calmly, reading his orange-covered smut.

"No a thing!" Naruto said, pouting, his arms crossed over his chest. "Bandage-san said I had the week off. Sighing, Naruto leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially towards his masked guardian, "I think he was mad about that prank on the Council chambers. No one can take a joke in this damn village!"

Kakashi ignored the child's colorful language with practiced ease. What bothered him, however, was the fact that Danzou had freely surrendered what may well be his last opportunity to train the child for months. After today, a great deal would change in Naruto's life.

"Oi, why is it so hot in here?" Naruto mentioned suddenly, and frowning Kakashi agreed. The kitchen did seem to be far hotter than usual. As he saw Naruto rub some sweat off his brow with a napkin, Kakashi drew a labored breath in through his mask. The thin cloth mask had become saturated with sweat over the course of a moment. Lifting his hands up to his mask, be began to pull...before pausing, forming a ram seal and fluctuating his chakra. Instantly, the heat ebbed, and he eye-smiled at his blond-haired ward.

"Nice try, Naruto-kun, but you'll have to do better than that. It's nearly autumn, and it's eigth in the morning. It wouldn't suddenly go over a hundred degrees over the course of a heartbeat."

"Tch, whatever," the boy said, pouting. "I almost had you, though! I'll see what's beneath that mask eventually, Cyclops-yarou!"

Shaking his head, Kakashi tuned out any further bluster, picking up his book from where he'd dropped it on the floor and giggling to himself. _'Jiraya-sama always brings it back to the old reliables, the bath house!'_

Still, Kakashi had to admit the his blond-haired ward had a nack for genjutsu. Against a less experienced foe, it was probable that they'd be enough of a distraction to enable an incapacitating blow. Kakashi had never had much of a knack for them as a child, and even after gaining his Sharingan, using the Copy-wheel eye was so chakra intensive it was better to overwhelm his opponent than craft a distracting illusion.

"Well, I'm going to head down to the academy!" Naruto said, waving energetically at him. He picked up the punishing amount of orange in his peripheral vision and sighed. That brat seemed to live to be a walking bulls-eye. After all that time shopping for a new outfit too...

Turning the page, Kakashi frowned. Hadn't he been waring that outfit when he'd arrived at the table. Frowning, he turned his eyes towards his precious Icha Icha before giggling. _'Jiraya-sama always bring it back to the old reliables, the bath house!'_

_'...wait a minute, didn't I...'_ Dropping his book to the table with a feeling of genuine fear, Kakashi brought his hands into the ram seal once more before dispelling a second illusion. Before his very eyes his precious Icha Icha transformed into the morning's paper. _'Then that flash of orange was...'_

"**Damn you, Uzumaki Naruto!**"

Walking away from a nearby dumpster empty-handed, a blond-haired academy student cackled.

* * *

"Well, well, thank-you for joining us," the class' sensei, a black-haired chuunin in her early twenties, drawled. "Now, take a seat."

"Aheh, will do sensei!"

Quickly, the blond haired boy surveyed the classroom for a seat. To his surprise, nearly every spot was taken, save one. As he made his way to the open seat, he noticed the looks of surprise on the student's faces. All of his classmates were at least three years his senior, to see such a young child show up so late in the year must have taken them by surprise.

Naruto struggled to keep his face reserved, but he grinned despite himself. Finally, Jiji saw what an awesome ninja he was! No more hanging around with kids who couldn't even manage a decent henge. Sitting down in his seat, he glanced over to the girl on his left, a Hyuuga judging by her pupil-less eyes. The Hyuuga's blueish-black hair was tied back into a bun, and she wore vestments he'd frequently seen members of the Hyuuga's branch family wearing. Her hitai-ite was tied around her forehead and the cloth was what kept her hair tied back into a bun. _'Thrifty.'_

"Uh, sensei?" a brown haired girl near the front row queried, raising her hand. Naruto noticed her hair was cut shorter than most other girls in the class, ending at shoulder length. She appeared to be wearing a keikogi, black bottoms with a green top.

"Yes, Hiyori-chan?"

"Is that new kid?" the brown haired girl queried, gesturing towards were Naruto had taken a seat. "Isn't he a bit...y'know...scrawny?"

"Oi!" Naruto shouted in response, standing up in his seat and glaring at his 'antagonist'. "Why don't you say that too my face?!"

Looking over her shoulder the brown haired girl rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I would, but my back's kinda sore. Don't think I can bend down far enough, shrimp."

The classroom erupted in laughter and Naruto's face turned red as a cherry. Not one to be outdone, he crossed his arms before sticking his nose in the air. "Oh, I didn't know you were so old as to have a bad back. Sorry about that, Baba."

"_What_ did you say, pipsqueak?!"

Rubbing his ear as though it pained him, Naruto faked a wince. "Oi, oi, quiet down there Baba. Are 'ya deaf too?"

Naruto couldn't help but antagonize the girl, it was refreshing to be treated as a kid, instead of as a pariah. It was clear that the majority of these kids didn't didn't have a clue who he was, it was refreshing.

"That's quite enough from the both of you, Uzumaki-kun, Mitokado-chan. If you two want to flirt," the sensei declared, pausing for a moment to watch both of the kid's faces heat up in embarrassment, "you can do it on your own time."

The woman effortlessly hid a smile at the children's mortification. _'That'll teach you little brats to interrupt my class!'_

"Anyway, as I was about to say before I was so rudely interrupted," the chuunin stated, glancing at the chastised Uzumaki Naruto, "yes, Mitokado-chan, Naruto is here to fill the open spot in the roster. Since we had twenty-three students pass the exam, he was extended the opportunity to fill in the empty spot, since he was able to pass the exam to become a genin despite being three years your junior."

At that, many of the eyes in the classroom turned towards the blond-haired child, and despite himself he felt his cheeks grow warmer. _'Do they all have to stare at me? It's not like I'm the first to graduate a couple years early.'_

"Now, your jounin-senseis will arrive and designate the teams you've all been assigned to. Let me say once more, congratulations. I'm sure you'll do Konoha proud," the chuunin stated with a smile, before scanning the entirety of the room with her hands on her hips. "All of you. Now, do try to make a good first impression, alright? You're ninja, adults in the eyes of the village. It's time to act like it. Now-"

Whatever the chuunin-sensei was about to say was interrupted as classrooms door was flung open, and a woman in her late twenties strode in. She wore a yukata, cut to end just below the knees and colored a rich black. Stylized flames extended from the sleeves and the collar area. A white obi was tied around her waist and a wakizashi was sheath on her left. Black hair flowed down her shoulders and green eyes surveyed the room. "Yo!" the woman shouted, her voice commanding respect and doing fair of job startling the collected academy students. "I'm here for team four: Hyuuga Miyuki, Mitokado Hiyori and Uzumaki Naruto. Meet me at training ground number for; you have five minutes."

A seal and she shunshined away in a whirlwind of swirling, _burning_ leaves.

Silence descended upon the room, before Naruto came to a realization. "Wait, did she say training ground _four?_"

The blond-haired Naruto glanced at the brown-haired Hiyori the teacher had addressed mere moments ago, and shared a look of disbelief. "That's over a mile away!"

The both stumbled out of their seats, running towards the door as though the hounds of hell were at their heels, while a far more subdued Hyuuga followed in their wake.

* * *

"Wow, six minutes and fifty seconds. Pretty darn good for kids like yourselves," their jounin-sensei remarked, giving them a one-woman round of applause. The three children simply glared at their antagonist, greedily sucking in air as they collapsed to a position that could roughly be considered sitting. Minutes passed, and the newly graduated academy students finally stilled their breathing. Smiling at them with an expression _far_ too cheerful, their sensei continued from where she left off. "Now that we're all here, let's begin your final exam."

"Hold on a second," Hiyori interrupted, confusion thick in her tone "we already took our final exam."

"Nuh-uh!" their sensei replied tauntingly. "I still have a chance to get you little brats 'outta my hair!"

"Shouldn't we...y'know, introduce ourselves?" Naruto interjected before Hiyori could rise to their sensei's bait.

"Tch, I don't see much of reason why...you kid's 'll probably be headed back for another year at the academy before the day is done..." Sighing dramatically, their sensei stood. "Fine, fine. I'm Namiashi Akane. Rank: Jounin. Birthday: June 13th. Birthplace: Konohagakure no sato. Favorite Color: Red. Hobby: Breaking the fingers of nosy genin. That good enough for ya?" she queried, crossing her arms and glaring.

"Aheh, yeah, that's perfect," Naruto replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Excellent!" Akane replied, a smiling exuberantly.

_'She's more flighty than Cyclops-sensei!'_

"Alright then, enough stalling. It's testing time!"

"But, uh...sensei-"

"Did you think I was joking about breaking fingers, Uzumaki-kun?"

Waiting for a moment, the jounin nodded. "Mmm, no response? Good. Now, this final exam is bit more practical than the one taken in the academy. Instead of examining your knowledge, I want to see how you apply it. Do well, and you pass. Fail, and you and the majority of your classmates repeat another year. Got it?"

"What exactly does the test entail, Namiashi-sensei?" Hyuuga Miyuki calmly inquired.

"Why, I'm glad you asked Miyuki-chan!" Reaching into the sleeves of her yukata, Akane pulled out a simple palm-sized piece of parchment with a seal inscribed. Channel chakra into it, she pulled out an analog alarm clock and placed it on the ground next to her. "Right now, it's nine in the morning. This alarm is set to ring in two hours. Your task is to survive until this alarm rings. Simple, neh?"

"Holy on, what do you mean _survive?!_ You wouldn't _kill_ us, would you?" Naruto asked, clearly perturbed.

"Oh of course not, Naruto-kun," their sensei said soothingly, swapping from last-name to first-name address as quickly as she swapped emotions. "Well, not intentionally, at least. I always tend to..._break_...fragile things. Ah well, I'm sure you kids 'll do fine, just stay conscious until the alarm rings! You know what, to be nice, I'll give you a thirty second head start."

"Thirty seconds, hardly enough time to conceal ourselves from a jounin," Miyuki commented.

"Oh, I know. But hiding around for up to two hours wouldn't be much fun, would it?"

"Fair enough," the pale-eyed girl replied simply.

All was silent for a moment, before Naruto piped up once more. "So, uh...when does the thirty seconds start?"

"Oh, hmm...about fifteen seconds ago."

Waving a hand in front of her face to clear the dust, Akane surveyed the spots her genin had just vanished from. "Hmm, I didn't know those brats knew shunshin..."

* * *

**Update: Fixed the slip up with the names in the academy scene.**

**Japanese Term List/Jutsu List**

Baba: Old Lady

Haori: A article of clothing worn over other layers as though a trench coat, but with obvious differences in appearance and materials.

Yukata: A light, summer kimono.

Keikogi: The vestments worn by martial artists and (I believe) kendo practitioners.

**A/N:** And there we go, a three-year time skip! I hope the transition wasn't too sudden, but I personally was growing tired of writing from the perspective of a six-year old, which was why Naruto had little screen time in the previous chapters. By the way, I'm adding a poll to my profile page regarding a secondary affinity, I'd like to hear your opinion on the matter. Be warned, just because something gets the highest number of votes doesn't mean I'll chose it, but I'll certainly consider it!

Also, thank-you all very much to those who reviewed last chapter. You brought up many excellent points, and I attempted to address them with this chapter. Just to clear up any confusion:

Karibanu: I understand what you're saying about the Kyuubi seeming a bit too human, and I'm trying to take opportunities to rectify that. I don't want to give to much of a spoiler for the rest of the story, but this is certainly not the first time Kyuubi has taken the form of a human, so he/she'll certainly have practice with human customs, which I hope explains a bit. That said, I do intend to prove the title of 'demon' true. Oh, and I decided to remove a few of the un-needed Japanese words in this chapter, to see how it affects the feeling of the chapters. I'll keep it up for a few more chapters and decided which style I prefer more. Thanks for the suggestion!

Pineapple: Hmm, I see what you mean, now that I think about it. I hope I explained a bit of it this chapter, but even then it seems a bit fishy to me to. At this point, though, it's become too important of a plot point to do away with, so I'll attempt to justify it as time progresses. And to be honest, I'm not sure who I'll have Naruto paired with at this point. Let me tell you that a _great_ deal will occur with this genin team, and I intend to do a few things I've never seen done, but always wanted to see. If you're displeased with a pairing, or you think it doesn't work, feel free to mention it. These characters are going to be developing, and as of now they're extremely young. I don't believe in 'true love' between 12-15 year olds, so nothing is set in stone. And don't worry about me being offended by reviews, I _love_ critique. I'm writing this story so I can grow as a...well...writer. Any advice is much appreciated.

sugoi-chan: Thanks! With these next few chapters, I'm going to be gradually moving out of the land of cliche and into new, (mostly) unexplored wilderness, I hope you enjoy it.

mi5tan: I'll be putting Naruto through hell, believe me. I hope I'll be able to recognize him at the end.

relor: Thanks, I hope to improve the quality even more as things continue forward!

Silent Blade: Last chapter gave me a lot of reviews, and it really is an emboldening thing to read what people think about your work, it really makes it worth it to know that someone enjoys it. I'm updating rather slowly at this point, so I'm going to see if I can pick up the pace. School has just started one again, though, so I can't make any promises.

JNottle: Indeed, the Kyuubi will be influencing Naruto a great deal. In fact, the influence is more or less the entire premise of this story. I still intend to keep the traits that make him who is is: flawed, human. The impulsiveness, recklessness and foolish determination are here to stay, I assure you all. However, he'll be maturing far more quickly, and the world of a shinobi is going to leave scars far earlier than it does in canon.

Lord Myst: Yup! I feel _extremely_ uncomfortable writing from the perspective of a six-year old, because I don't remember a dang thing from when I was that age, and I don't interact with little tikes in the slightest. Now that he has a few more years behind him, and has reached canon age, I feel less ridiculous about making him into a shinobi.

Next time, I'll probably avoid writing so much in response, but I won't lie, I'm rather stoked about the number of reviews I received. Until next time!


	8. Of Tests and Failure

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto Universe. Count yourselves lucky, there'd be a bunch of typos, it would look like it was drawn by a four year old.**

Author's Note at the end of the chapter.

**

* * *

**

Ninko, Chapter 8: Of Tests and Failure

"Hmm, well at least you're all good at hiding..." Namiashi Akane remarked with a pout, "...well, for academy students at least."

The jounin stalked through the grove of trees with silent footsteps, humming a tune as she walked. "Y'know," she stated suddenly, "I wonder what would happen if I killed a Hyuuga Branch Member in a 'training accident'." Scrunching her nose up in thought she began listing off consequences as they came into her head. "Hmm, well, I'd probably have to make a formal apology, or some bullshit like that. Then there'd probably be disciplinary action. Maybe I'd have to do a few months of D-ranks..."

Trailing off, she continued her laid-back pace. Her eyes raked the trees, and she smirked. "Oh, I probably wouldn't have to teach any more brats again! That'd be awesome! Maybe even worth the D-ranks."

A blond-haired aspiring-genin couldn't resist the urge to sweat from his perch above his sensei. Fortunately, she hadn't spotted the genjutsu he'd placed over his hiding spot in the tree limbs. Of course, it was a great deal easier to fool her eyes than a Hyuuga's-

"Oh, but what's this!" the woman suddenly exclaimed, startling the whiskered boy. His jerky movement made hardly a sound, yet a yellowed leaf was plucked from it's home on a tree limb and began to fall, swaying in the breeze-less morning air. _'Crap! If it leaves my genjutsu, it'll look like it appears out of thin air.'_

Placing his hands into a ram seal, Naruto attempts to subtly change the genjutsu's appearance to account for the leaf, but pauses.

"Tsk, tsk, so sloppy," he heard his sensei mutter, and he looked down towards the ground to see her spinning a kunai. "Someone failed to still their chakra flow!"

With a whistle the kunai flicked from her hands and into the trees. With a disturbing _'slick'_ it sunk into the flesh of Naruto's throat. His reached for the weapon, and his hands felt slick with blood as he failed to breath, gargling pathetically. His illusion dispelled as he tumbled head over heels out of the tree.

A gasp in the distance pierced the momentary silence. Turning, Akane noted where her kunai had met flesh and her eyes widened. "Oh shi-"

_'__**Poof!'**_

As soon as it appeared, the form was gone in a pulse of a chakra and an explosion of smoke. Incredulous, Akane broke out in a fit of laughter.

"Oi..." she muttered in between laughs, "..you had me there..." she continued, still laughing uproariously before, her levity came to an abrupt end. "...you little blond **bastard**!" At that her voice was devoid of mirth, and filled with a promise of pain. Her back straightened, and fire shone in her eyes. Akane rested her right hand upon the hilt of her wakizashi and finished, "you're gonna pay for that," in a disquieting sing-song tone.

_'Why did I have to get the crazy sensei?' _Naruto thought piteously.

Bringing her left hand into a half-seal, Akane chuckled, before announcing to the hidden genin: "_**K****aton: Housenka no Jutsu!**_"

_'What?! A single one-handed seal?!'_

Roaring spheres of fire lanced through the air, crashing into the boughs of trees and sending the dry autumn leaves ablaze. As one of the flames struck his perch, Naruto leapt into the air. Tossing a shuriken at his sensei Naruto stuffed his hands into the overly long sleeves of his haori, hiding his hands as he flashed through hand-seals. Midway though, he alighted upon the branch of a nearby tree.

_'Ox--Dog--Dragon--Rat--Dog--Boar--Snake--Tiger, __**Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!**__'_

Drawing her sword, Akane formed another half seal with her free hand before slicing a furrow into the ground with the tip. _'__**Doton: Doryuukei!**__' _From the furrow rose a thin wall wall, wide just wide enough to cover her body and just thick enough to stop the kunai.

Naruto frowned at that. _'She's conserving chakra. And if she has jounin level reserves...'_

"Enough pouting blondie, time to focus!"

Frantically leaping from the branch he was resting upon, Naruto was taken aback as he saw his sensei's wakizashi cleave _through_ the branch with ease, before she kicked off the trunk in pursuit.

Cursing, Naruto pulled out a kunai from his holster, parrying away a slash from his sensei's sword with a wince. _'How can she be so strong?!'_ Two more clangs filled the air before the kunai went flying out of the genin's hand. Grinning wickedly, his sensei thrusted the wakizashi towards his right shoulder, and Naruto parried the blade away with his left hand, wincing as the blade sunk into his skin.

Finally the boy reached the ground, tumbling backwards head over heels. Akane landed on her feet, and her sword sliced twice through air, cutting into the fleshy calves of Naruto's legs as the boy tumbled.

The boy landed sprawled on his back, and his sensei paused, grinning. "Nice try Naruto-kun, but not quite enou-"

A flash of chakra danced across the shinobi's senses, accompanied with the rustling of leaves. Akane didn't even have time to react as a lance of chakra sliced into her side, tearing muscles and tendons yet, mercifully, doing little damage to organs. _'Got her.' _Hyuuga Miyuki though triumphantly, a ghost of a smile crossing her lips.

Strangely, not a single flash of pain crossed her sensei's face. "Oww, oww, Miyuki-chan, that _hurt_. Or at least, it woulda, but it's easy to fool your eyes when they're closed..."

_'__**Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu**__.'_

In the span of a heartbeat, the Akane doppelganger collapsed into a pile of rocks and dirt, and another appeared, dragging the Hyuuga below the earth with a smirk.

"Hyuuga buried and a blondie hobbled..." Akane remarked evenly, watching Naruto attempt - and fail - to rise to his feet. A genuine smile flashed across her face, "...how about I grab Hiyori and make it a full set!" she finished warmly.

In a swirl of burning leaves, she was gone.

Pausing for a moment, Naruto attempted to catch his breath from his position prone on the ground. The scent of burnt foliage was thick in his nostrils as he glanced at the flame-scarred tree above him. Grunting, the whiskered shinobi rose to his feet before stumbling over to his entombed teammate with a kunai in hand.

"You know you won't be able to dig me out before she comes back with Hiyori, don't you," the 'decapitated' Hyuuga remarked dryly.

Pausing for a moment, the Hyuuga frowned. "Hold on, that reminds me, how are you standing anyway? Your calves shouldn't be able to support your weight."

"Aheh...it's not important. What is important is getting you outta there before Akane-sensei gets back!"

Sighing, Miyuki rolled her eyes. "She's a jounin. You should probably go and try to hide, she might even be on her way back with Hiyori now."

"Sorry Miyuki-chan, but you're wrong on that account!" a third voice announced, and both genin turned to see Hiyori walk into the clearing looking wholly unscathed. "Her chakra senses must suck, because she went off in the totally wrong direction!"

"Oi, Hiyori-san, give me a hand here! We need to get Miyuki-san out before sensei comes back."

Frowning, Hiyori shook her head. "There isn't enough time to dig her out. If we can ambush her now, while she thinks we're separated, we can take her!"

Jumping to his feet, Naruto gestured dramatically at the smoldering embers that littered the ground. "She took me and Miyuki out with a bunshin, you and I don't have a chance against her alone, we have to work together!"

At that, Hiyori winced, but wiped the expression from her face in the blink of an eye. Shaking her head, the brown-haired girl frowned. "Well, if you want to dig her out, shrimp, go ahead. I'm gonna go find her while I have advantage of surprise. Not like you'd be of much use, probably can't even manage Kawarimi."

"Screw you, Baba-" Naruto stopped suddenly, as though he made a great realization. "That's it, Kawarimi! You're a genius!"

_'__**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!**__' _With a puff of smoke, a blond doppelganger appeared. Nodding at the original, the clone sealed for the technique. _'__**Kawarimi no Jutsu!**__'_

With a puff of smoke, the doppelganger and the imprisoned Hyuuga switched placed, and a scowl covered Hiyori's features. "Gah, little punk!"

The image wavered, and the appearance of their sensei appeared where Hiyori's were a moment before. Naruto's eyes barely tracked the wakizashi as - sheath and all - it scythed through the air toward his head.

Then, blackness.

* * *

Mitokado Hiyori rushed rushed through the trees, the sleeves of green keikogi flowing in the wind behind her as she sprinted towards the chakra pulse she'd noticed mere moments ago. _'Crap, that was a lot of chakra channeled in a short period of time. But who's technique was it?'_

When the test began, Hiyori split up from her team-mates to prepare for the coming battle. She hadn't expected sensei to begin the test so suddenly, and there wasn't a chance that she'd be able to set-up in mid-battle against a jounin. A brown leather strap crossed over her shoulder as a scroll - long as her torso and thick as her hand - knocked against her back as she leaped from branch to branch. Finally, coming up to the clearing she alighted on a branch, just as her eyes fell upon the forms of her classmate and sensei locked in a dance of blades and chakra on the ground below.

She suppressed a wince at the sight of Uzumaki Naruto unconscious on the ground. A vicious looking bruise was purpling near his left eye, but she hadn't the faintest idea what could have caused it. _'Tch, figures the brat would've been the first one down. What could a kid like him possibly contribute to this fight?'_

She was taken aback as she saw Akane-sensei in combat with Miyuki-chan. The former's blade strikes were terrifying, scything through the air to a pulse on their own. Cut-Spin-Slice-Stab, her wakizashi moved as though weightless as she went through moves as though they were a kata. It segmented and wholly extraordinary, to see her style. The moves didn't flow so much as the fell into each other, and as the fight continued the span between each strike grew shorter and shorter. It was obvious from her lofty perch that Akane was showing restraint. The difference is skill was so vast that the blink of an eye was opening that could have brought Miyuki's demise. Numerous strikes were pulled before they met skin, and the raven-haired jounin only gained momentum as the fight continued.

Miyuki, one the other hand, appeared to be dancing. Her hands were coated in chakra as she parried away sensei's strikes with the undeniable grace of Jyuuken, however she was constantly on the defensive. As she watched the battle, seeking to find an open, Hiyori had to admit that their sensei posed a terrifying specter. Her yukata, black as night flowed as she moved from strike to strike. The flames embroidered into the fabric seemed to ripple as she moved, as though hungry pyres seeking to consume and destroy her foe.

It was a forgone conclusion. Soon, the Hyuuga would tire and then-

A slice from Akane-sensei was met with a parry from a chakra encased hand. However, the jounin spun, breaking the pattern by striking out at her students thigh with sweeping kick. A stumble and flash of metal, and a blood red line appeared up inside of Miyuki's forearm. Cursing, Hiyori snapped herself out of her daze and unrolled her scroll. Reaching into her sleeves, she pulled out a brace of kunai with her left hand before using the blades to prick each finger on her right.

"Miyuki! Back!" Hiyori yelled, and let the kunai fly.

Akane stopped her charge and lept backwards to avoid the projectiles, whilst Miyuki acquiesced and moved to put more distance between herself and her sensei.

_'Perfect...'_

"Yo, sensei! Miss me?"

The genin wiped a bloody finger across a row of identical seals inscribed on the scroll, and a torrent of water spilled forth.

* * *

The first thing he felt was the pounding ache, pulsing in his head and in spite of his training, he let out a groan.

"Oh lookie there! Little Naru-chan's awake!"

Naruto shuddered at that voice, the sing-song tone certain to become the stuff of nightmares before the day's end. He attempted to stand before he released he was already vertical. He attempted to move, before he realized he was securely tied to a tree.

Glancing over at his teammates, he saw that they were in a similar position, both tied up in a row and facing their antagonist. Miyuki had bandages wrapped around her arm and a looked a bit on the pale side, whereas Hiyori looked as though she'd nearly been drowned. His brown-haired teammate had a large scroll placed as her feet, saturated with chakra residue and smelling strongly of blood. Shaking his head, Naruto brought his focus to present.

"Oi!" the whiskered boy shouted, "untie me you crazy bi-"

Akane's hand shot forward, grabbing his chin and forcibly closing his mouth. "Uh-uh-uh, what horrible language young man. What would your mother say?"

Naruto responded with a look of pure loathing.

"Oh, oops! Totally slipped my mind! Sorry about that, Naruto-chan!"

_'What is it with jounin referring to me like I'm some toddler?!'_

"Now, where was I? Ah yes. Well, the alarm went off a few minutes ago, not that any of you would notice, because you were all...aheh...sleeping. So, you all failed the test! Congratulations!"

At that their eccentric sensei gave them another one-woman round of applause, which was met with nothing but disappointed faces and glares, even from the usually stoic Hyuuga Miyuki.

"If you're just going to send us back the academy," Hiyori mumbled, her words filled with annoyance, "why'd you bother to tie this up. What, is tying up minors some sort of hobby for you?!"

"Mm...maybe. Why'dya ask?" Akane replied soberly.

Needless the say, the genin where struck speechless, not to say that it wasn't easy to tell they were extremely disturbed.

"Anyway, recreation aside, you're all here so I can go over the miserable excuse of a fight you three orchestrated. Starting with...you, blondie."

Naruto scowled at the nickname, but neglected to reply. "Your genjutsu was alright, along with your use of ninjutsu, but you just lacked _staying power_. I mean, falling asleep in the middle of the fight? _Disgraceful._"

"I didn't fall asleep, you psycho, you clubbed me over the head with the sheath of your sword!"

"Oh..." the jounin replied, a frown on her face. "Was _that_ how it happened? Ah well. Anyway, onto cataract girl!"

Miyuki refrained from giving any reply, another than a spiteful glare with a lavender eyes.

"That Jyuuken was _sooo_ mean! I felt it through my clone! Or...at least...I would have, if that was possible..." coughing the woman continued. "Anyway, very underhanded tactic there, using your poor little Naru-chan as a distraction."

"We're shinobi," Miyuki intoned evenly, "we're supposed to be underhanded. You didn't give us time to plan a strategy, so I made to with what was given to me."

"Aww, so cold Miyuki-chan. Speaking of cold, Fuuin-chan!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" the brown-haired girl replied testily.

"You know very well what it means!" the jounin-sensei replied with equal venom. "Couldn't you have used _warm_ water?!"

The only reply the jounin received was a long-suffering sigh.

"Anyway, your teamwork was fine for little tykes like yourselves, but not good enough to be chuunin. _Sorry!_ You lose!"

"Chuunin?" Naruto queried. "We're _genin_. Or at least, _trying_ to be genin, what are you talking about chuunin for?!"

"Oh...genin huh? Eh, whatever, chuunin, genin, all little tykes. Either way, you failed the test!" their raven-haired sensei exclaimed, her hand waving dismissively at the 'little tykes'. "Do you guys know what the punishment is?"

The black-haired woman smiled wickedly at the looks of disappointment that flashed across the children's faces. "Your punishment is: being genin team number four under your charismatic jounin-sensei, Namiashi Akane!"

Naruto replayed the jounin's words in his head, and couldn't help the flash of pure joy that crossed his features. _'We aren't going back the academy!'_ The thought was derailed, however, at his next realization. _'Oh Kami, we're stuck with this psycho!' _"...can we _please_ go back? I mean, waiting another year can't be _too_ bad."

"Nope! Sorry Naru-chan, you're stuck with me!" Akane smiled in a fashion that could only be described as chipper, before her features darkened. "I expect you kids to learn from this, though. Your teamwork was fine for a bunch of academy students, but leaving your comrade high and dry against a superior opponent," at this she shot a subtle glance towards Miyuki, "will not be tolerated. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sensei. It will not happen again."

"Good," the jounin replied, nodding slightly. "Your decision to free your teammate instead of charging after me was wise, Naruto-kun," Akane stated simply, "but you need to develop a tighter leash on your chakra. A good illusion is worthless if you radiate chakra like a beacon."

Turning at last towards Hiyori, the genin's sensei smirked. "You, like Miyuki, allowed your teammates to play the part of distractions whilst you prepared. It's a fine tactic, if you don't give a damn about whether or not they live or die. In the scope of this test, it's not too troublesome." At this, Akane's features softened, and she let loose a tiny grin. "But you need to be able to be able to rely on each other. You seem like good kids, and I'm sure in a life or death situation, you would have chosen differently, you and Miyuki. If any of you prove me wrong in this regard, I'll have your hitai-ite stripped from you and will hound Hokage-sama himself until you're brought to trial for treason. That goes for you as well, Naruto-kun. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Akane-sensei!" the genin replied in unison.

"Excellent!" Once again, the woman was back to her normal 'carefree' self with a speed that was honestly rather disarming. "Anyway, I'm gonna go grab some lunch, see you all tomorrow, same time, same place!"

"Yo, hold up," Hiyori yelled at the retreating back of their sensei. "Untie us first!"

A hand-seal and a burst of chakra was the response before their sensei disappeared in a whirlwind of burning leaves.

"...well...crap."

* * *

**Japanese Term List/Jutsu List**

Kawarimi no Jutsu: Replacement technique, now with 100% less log!

Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu: The jutsu Kakashi uses to metabolize Sasuke in canon. The translations vary from Headhunter Technique, to Double Suicide Technique, to Groundhog Decapitation, so...

Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Replicates shuriken (I'm making it extend to kunai and other thrown weapons, though) turning it from a single incoming weapon to a barrage.

Katon: Housenka no Jutsu: Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Technique. Spits a barrage of fireballs.

Doton: Doryuukei: Earth Release: Earth-style Wall. Makes a wall out of stone. Pretty straightforward

**Character Profiles**

Name: Namiashi Akane  
Rank: Jounin  
Affiliation: Konohagakure no sato  
Relatives: Naimiashi Raidou (Brother) [You should recognize this guy from Asuma's squad].  
Specialization: Kenjutsu/Ninjutsu  
Notes: Blends ninjutsu into her kenjutsu attacks by wieldering her wakizashi in one hand and mastering one-handed seals for her other hand. Decently sized jutsu repetoire, but mostly only C-rank and below have been used enough to progress to one-handed seals.

Name: Mitokado Hiyori  
Rank: Genin  
Affiliation: Konohagakure no sato  
Relatives: Mitokado Homura (Grandfather)  
Specialization: Fuuinjutsu/Taijutsu  
Notes: Incorporates seals into fighting style, but is a novice in the actual creation (that is to say, creating new versions) of sealing arrays.

Name: Hyuuga Miyuki  
Rank: Genin  
Affiliation: Konohagakure no sato  
Relatives: Entire Hyuuga Clan  
Specialization: Jyuuken Taijutsu  
Notes: Branch member with a respectable knowledge of Jyuuken style.

Name: Uzumaki Naruto  
Rank: Genin  
Affiliation: Konohagakure no sato  
Relatives: Hatake Kakashi (Legal Guardian)  
Specialization: Genjutsu/Ninjutsu  
Notes: For an academy student, he is proficient in taijutsu, but even specialists his age have him outclassed in that regard. This is primarily due to the fact he is not only their junior, but also rather small even for his age.

**A/N:** As a thanks for all the great critique, I decided to write this chapter a little earlier than is my custom. I might try to see if I can keep up the pace enough to make bi-weekly (twice/week) updates plausible, but no promises. This is the first real action scene of this length I've written period, so I hope it was interesting! It's difficult to translate from what I visualize in my head to text, but I think it worked decently well. The scenes should improve as I get more familiar with the style. Note on speaking out jutsu names. Jounin will almost never do it, and genin will usually avoid it unless they're higher ranked. I see jutsu progression as this:

Starting out with a jutsu, a ninja will be able to perform the intended action with A: Speaking the name of the jutsu and B: Performing the requisite handseals.

Mastering the jutsu make can make this unnecessary. For a bit of a more in depth description, check my profile, don't want the Author's Note to be too long.

I was having trouble finding the correct charaterization for Akane, and since all shinobi above chuunin rank seem to have some disturbing personality quirk, I decided to maintain the theme here. I realized partway through that I was giving Akane multiple Anko-like qualities, but I hope I made Akane a unique enough character that they don't appear to be clones.


	9. Of Politics and Rivalries

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series. This a fanfiction, and nothing more.**

Author's Note at the end of the chapter.

* * *

Ninko, Chapter 9: Of Politics and Rivalries

"Oi, what are you doing?!"

With a teasing grin, Hiyori ignored the words of protest from her blond-haired teammate and lifted a thimble's worth of the boy's noodles to her mouth with a grin. "The price of inattention, Naruto-kun," the girl taunted before popping the food in her mouth.

Naturally, it sparked a round of insults that the two had fallen into as though close friends, and Hyuuga Miyuki sighed morosely as she sampled a bite from her her own dish. _'Adults in the eyes of the village,'_ the girl though to herself with yet another sigh, _'...and yet they act like bickering children.'_

She regarded Hiyori with an imperceptibly slight frown. In class, the girl had always been a...domineering personality, yet she was slow to form a rapport with anyone. How she felt so comfortable around this boy was a mystery.

Miyuki's eyes then turned towards her male teammate, and was similarly taken aback. _'And this one...his very name is a polarizing topic amongst the Branch Family, and yet he acts like a child. For one hailed as a prodigy, I'd expected someone more...reserved.'_

When the boy's name had been announced earlier that day in class, her mind had conjured up the numerous whispered conversations between clan members. He managed to inspire rather passionate feelings despite his unassuming appearance, though her keen lavender eyes noted his distinctive features were shared by only one man, the late Yondaime Hokage. Is that the 'public secret' that everyone seemed to discuss in tense and worried tones?

_'No, that wouldn't make sense,' _the girl decided. _'If he was connected to the Yondaime, he'd not have lived the life of an orphan. He'd have been used as political leverage from the day of his birth.'_

"Hey, Miyuki-chan, whatcha starin' at me for? Do I have something on my face?"

Shaking her head whilst the boy energetically wiped his face with his haori's sleeve, she responded calmly without showing surprise at having gotten caught. "I'm simply studying your rather unique hair color. Are you related to the Yamankas?" she stated civilly, her words half truth and half fabrication as she subtle shifted her attention back towards her meal.

"Nah, at least I don't think so," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, and his voice wavered with a hint of nervousness. "I suppose it is possible, though, no one really knows who my parents are."

_'He's lying, how bizarre.'_

Regardless of her realization, Miyuki nodded in response and ate another mouthful of her takikomi gohan.

Filing away this conversation for later, the lavender eyed girl decided to attempt to be more cordial. The blond-haired boy was a stranger to them, whereas herself and Hiyori were at least acquaintances.

"Tell me, Naruto-kun," the girl began evenly, "why did you choose to become a shinobi?"

She watched with a subdued pleasure at the plethora of emotions that flashed across the blond's face, and noted with pity that there few of them could be considered 'happy'. "Well..." the boy began, his voice far more subdued than it had been mere moments ago, "there's...really not much else, y'know? I can't really be a civilian, 'cause the civilian academy's tuition is a _lo~t_ bigger."

"Not to mention, when I was little I always wanted to be like Jiji: wear the cool looking hat 'n all..."

"Jiji?" Hiyori echoed.

"Ah, well...you probably, uh...." the boy trailed off a bit, clearly embarrassed. His face went from healthy tan to cherry red, and the boy scratched the back of his neck in what was quickly becoming a rather distinctive nervous habit.

"Well, what is your goal now, Naruto-kun?" Miyuki stated, smoothly redirecting the conversation to a topic less uncomfortable for the boy. The blond shot her a relieved look, and Miyuki returned it with a slight incline of her head.

"I dunno. I mean, I don't wanna stay a genin, but I don't have anything in particular..."

"Tch, I guess _kouhai_, doesn't have any have any dreams," Hiyori remarked snidely, "must be a bit jarring to go from preschool to genin to squad. Guess you 'hafta give him time to acclimate, Miyuki-chan."

"_Kouhai?!_ We're of the same rank, _Baba_! You don't even have seniority! And I do have a dream: protecting my _family_, blood or no!"

Miyuki shook her head at self-satisfied grin that covered Hiyori's face. _'Manipulating the poor boy into giving an answer, Hiyori-chan? You're gonna end up scaring him off.'_

"If you're so _experienced_, _senpai_, what's your dream?"

"Far too important for a little child like you to understand, _Naruto-chan_," Hiyori responded, echoing Akane's nickname for the adolescent blond.

"Hiyori-chan," Miyuki interjected, her tone scolding, "that's a pitiful way to forge bonds between teammates."

"Oh, is that so?" the brown-haired girl replied, clearly aggravated at being ganged up on by her former classmate. "Well, why don't _you_ offer something, then, instead of watching from the sidelines like some sort of referee!"

"Very well then," the lavender eyed genin replied with a shrug. "My dream is to become the Hokage."

* * *

Naruto closed the door to his shared apartment with a groan, staggering into the living room and collapsing bonelessly on the couch. Lunch with his teammates had been an interesting affair, and after they'd went their separate ways for the day, Naruto returned to his team's meeting area to practice a few techniques.

Primarily, Naruto focused on chakra control, as it was a constant trial for the boy to improve his. Working with clones made things exponentially easier, however his reserves were increases at a frightening rate, and he feared he wouldn't be able to increase his control of his chakra to match.

Smiling slightly, Naruto stretched his tired muscles and attempted to still his labored breathing. Seeing Akane-sensei performing single-seal jutsu had been a bit of a surprise, but while he was training he'd sent a clone to the library - which he could now access the genin-restricted sections of - and found a scroll regarding jutsu theory which described the phenomenon. It was a feat requiring both chakra control and experience with a specific jutsu, with the necessity for one being mitigated by the other. Presumably, one with abysmal chakra control would be able to reach the one-handed seal state if they used a jutsu frequently enough, and one with prodigious chakra control (Tsunade of the Densetsu no Sannin came to mind) would be able to shorten seal sequences immediately after learning techniques.

Chakra control was a gateway - or a shortcut - to everything a shinobi practiced, even many forms of taijutsu.

Shaking his head with a grimace, Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose. _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_ was an extremely useful tool, but it left one feeling...scatterbrained, until time was taken to sort through all the information the bunshin provided.

Eventually Naruto's thought drifted to his teammates, and he fought a grin. It was...fun, to be able to socialize with people his age. Up until now, socialization had been almost entirely with experienced ninja over a decade his senior. It made his youth all the more obvious, and he relished the opportunity to train amongst equals.

_'No way I'm calling Hiyori-chan 'senpai', though. Dattebayo!'_

Deciding he's spent enough time lazing about, Naruto stood up from his position lounging on the couch and walked into the kitchen. On the fridge he noticed a note from the Cyclops, and he barely even bothered to read it; the blond knew the routine by now. Another week or so home alone, it was almost enough to put damper on his spirits.

Almost.

Naruto was nothing if not optimistic, though. Opening the fridge, he noticed it was lacking much in edible food, so the boy decided to make something a bit more complex than the usual fare (namely, cup ramen).

Bringing water to a boil, he grinned, his mind drifting the the day's events. _'This team will certainly be interesting.'_

_

* * *

_The air was thick with the scent of alcohol, yet silence settled over the bar like a haze. _The Twig_ was known to be a hangout for the higher ranked of Konoha's shinobi, in spite - or perhaps because of - it's ridiculous name.

In the rear of the establishment some of Konoha's best and brightest were gathered, sharing stories and drinking in equal measure.

"So, Akane-san," Nara Shikaku prompted during a moment of relative silence, "I hear Hokage-sama tried to saddle you with a genin team this year."

Glaring in response, Akane set down her sakazuki with a moan. "Aww, I was trying to forget, dangit!"

A round of chuckles was shared, which prompted the yukata-clad jounin to pout all the more.

"So, who'd the old man try to stick you with?" queried Sarutobi Asuma flippantly, his disrespect toward the Hokage hardly garnering a passing a glance.

"Well, there's the rub. He gave me rookie of the year: a Branch Hyuuga, Miyuki. He also gave me Mitokado Homura-san's granddaughter, and Danzou's little pet project, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Ouch," Asuma muttered with a wince. "I bet that bunch didn't take being sent back to the academy well."

Silence was his only response.

"Kami. You _passed_ them?"

A groan, and a nod.

"Well, I never thought you'd give in," Shikaku replied with a frown.

"No kidding," Yuuhi Kurenai said somewhat bitterly. "Who'll Hokage-sama rope in next, Kakashi?"

Another chuckle passed over the table, and a few glanced over at the aggravated tokubetsu jounin. It was well known that raven-haired genjutsu mistress wanted a genin team of her own. However, despite her nearly unrivaled skill in genjutsu, she was finding it difficult to gain the rank of full jounin, primarily due to village politics.

An akward silence settled over the table, before Yamanaka Inoichi spoke up. "I'm a bit surprised that the Uzumaki boy was allowed to graduate this year. After the Uchiha incident, I figured accelerated graduations had been all but snuffed out."

"Yeah, but that's exactly why the boy was bumped up," Asuma, flicking open his lighter as he pulled out a cigarette. "With the tensions with Iwa escalating, a few influential parties want as many skilled shinobi on hand as possible. If a kid can graduate early, they can get training from a jounin far earlier, and if they survive the exams, become chuunin at a younger age, except hopefully just as skilled as if they'd stuck around in the academy for an extra few years."

The man paused, taking a drag from his cigarette, and ignoring the glare he was receiving from a certain red-eyed woman. "Danzou's had his hands in Uzumaki's development since the boy turned six, and he's a hell of a lot more stable than Uchiha Sasuke, and even more well known around the village. If he can become a success story, the program'll probably get restarted, _and _the old warmongerer'll get brownie points with the civilians. They might even let him revive Ne."

"So, I get to groom the feather for that one-eyed bastard's cap?" Akane said with groan. "Brilliant."

"You think the boy's got what it takes?" Shikaku questioned.

"Mmm...probably. He's skilled for a genin, might even be skilled enough to be chuunin as is, and his teammates have the abilities to match." This time the jounin took another drink of sake, this time ignoring the dish and getting it straight from the bottle. "I was hopin' to scare em off with being a little rough on em, but they all stepped up the plate. I probably coulda failed em anyway, and just taken my 'lashings' from the council, but..."

The woman chuckled, patting the hilt of her wakizashi as she did so. "That wouldn't be _nearly_ as fun now, would it?"

"Heh," Asuma chuckled. "Poor kids."

* * *

"Good morning, children," Akane greeted in a surprisingly subdued tone. It took her genin no more than a moment to notice the bags under her bloodshot eyes and Naruto didn't even bother to contain his laughter.

His laughter was met with a rather fierce glare. "Quiet, Naru-chan. Children are to be seen, not heard."

The blond-haired genin glared at the rebuke, and was especially put off at the peal of laughter Hiyori unleashed in response. "Aww, poor little Naru-chan's upset!" the brown-haired genin drawled, leaning forward to bring her head down to the kid's eye level. "You aren't gonna pout are 'ya, _kouhai_?"

Miyuki sighed at her teammates antics, noticing their sensei seemed rather pleased at the free entertainment. "Naruto-kun, Hiyori-chan, shouldn't we be training instead of bickering like rambunctious children?"

Miyuki's did little to deter the two, and the normally composed girl quickly grew annoyed at their antics as the volume reached ridiculous levels.

"I'm not some little kid! I'm only three years younger than you, dangit, we're peers!"

"Tch, you can say we're peers when I'm no longer a head taller than you, shortie!"

"_Screw you_, Baba-"

"That's _quite_ enough!"

Miyuki stomped up, grabbed both of the bickering genin by the collar and shook with surprising strength. "Quite acting like children! You're shinobi of Konohagakure no sato, adults in the eyes of the village. _Act_ like it, dammit!"

Naruto was cowed by his teammate's words, whereas Hiyori was simply stupefied. _'What the hell? What happened tot he ever composed Miyuki-chan?'_

_'Ah, the dynamics of a genin team.' _Akane reflected with an uneasy grin._ 'The two mouths and the mediator. Yet which will be the leader?'_

Nodding with approval as the three genin finally came to attention, she fought the urge to frown. _'I'll have to save today's little exam for later. Uzumaki's presence throws a wrench in the team's dynamics, he has no knowledge of the other two's demeanor, whilst they know each other's at least passably.'_

"Now," the woman began soberly, "begins the moment the three of you have trained your bodies and minds for, a Konoha shinobi's greatest duty: missions for the continued prosperity of the village." The woman paused for a minute, and surveyed the genin's expressions. She resisted the urge to cackle evilly at the steely looks of determination reflected in all three sets of eyes. "Are you ready?"

She was deeply amused by the enthusiastic response she received.

Naturally, that enthusiasm dimmed when the Hokage handed them the scroll for their D-rank mission: catching the infamous feline, Tora.

"You suck, sensei," Naruto groaned.

His teammates nodded in agreement.

* * *

"Common, you little brats!" Akane shouted tauntingly, "put your back into it!"

The genin were doing their first mission outside of Konoha's walls, though it was considered a D-rank mission in spite of that. A farm near Konoha was short on manpower, and had contracted some Konoha genin to bring in the harvest.

"I don't know how she can be so chipper," Naruto mumbled, pushing a wheelbarrow filled to the brim with ears of maize. Behind him he could hear his sensei enthusiastically removing the ears from the stalks before then cutting the stalks as close to the ground as possible. A few of Naruto's clones worked with the farmhands to bundle the stalks for storage and pile the maize ears for drying and storage.

In the distance, Naruto's ears caught the shouts from Hiyori as she 'motivated' the farmer's oxen to till an already-harvested field. After four days of working on the farm, the end was in sight. Another as-of-yet untouched field remained, and by the point the farmer would be able to till the land and plant his winter grains with the manpower he already had.

At dinner, Naruto had learned had learned more about this farm's operation than he had ever wanted. They, along with many other farms in the area sold maize: grain and all. The grain was dried and sent by caravan to Suna, while the stalks were bundled and sent north to Iwa, where the still-rebuilding superpower would use it for building material for temporary structures. The nation prided itself on using more natural materials for it's cities homes, and a combination of stone or clay walls with maize-stalk roofs was common in the hamlets outside of the Iwagakure no Sato itself. The nation's ninja capital was carved out of rock and designed to be a fortress against any foreign power.

It was a rather complicated system, which was what Ninja Academy's spring-to-fall schoolyear was based on. Chuunin instructors took missions to guard the convoys as they traveled through bandit infested territory, necessitated by the large farming community the Hi no Kuni housed.

Many of the larger farming operations hired workers for the summer and autumn months, and laid them off when the harvesting season was over. This temps were then left without work during the time when grain prices were at their highest, and many normally law-abiding men would form into small packs of bandits and raid smaller convoys for the fruits and grain, or sometimes even raiding the silos of the farms that had hired them. Checked as they were by shinobi, the damaged they inflicted were minor and loss of life was rare. Unchecked, however, and they might destabilize the continent's delicate trading system.

Except the odd missing-nin, though, the bandits proved little threat to squads of chuunin. However, they were numerous, and often organized enough to prey upon smaller, unguarded convoys, or even the larger ones near the borders when Iwa's or Suna's ninja squads split their numbers. The reasons for doing so were obvious: a squad of three or four chuunin marching with a convoy into Konohagakure no Sato (Hi no Kuni's ninja _and_ trade headquarters) was bound to cause political tension. A single chuunin, perhaps joined by a genin was far less problematic, and Konoha was often will to turn a blind eye towards such 'incursions' for the good of trade. Trade with Suna carried with it fewer concerns, though, since the alliance between the two powers contained a clause allowing such chuunin squads deeper within Hi no Kuni. The peace treaty with Iwa no Kuni, however, contained no such concessions.

Talks with the farmers, who certainly weren't the ignorant hillbillies that Naruto had expective, had been very informative.

And _very_ boring.

Returning with the wheelbarrow, Naruto couldn't help but study his sensei. Her black yukata, one pristine was stained with dirt, and her raven bangs clung to her brow due to sweat. She stretched, the crescent-shaped sickled raised high in the air as her back arched, and Naruto fought the blush that crossed his cheeks.

"Oh hello, Naruto-ku~un," Akane-sensei cooed, and she grinned to herself at the blush that blossomed on the boy's cheeks. _'Aww, they grow up so fast.'_ Shaking her head with a chuckle, she gestured towards a pile of maize ears. "That'll be the last pile we'll be taking in today," the woman stated evenly, slipping the farming tool into her dirt-stained obi. "Drop the wheelbarrow there and fetch another, will you? I'll load this one up for ya."

"U-uh...alright, Akane-sensei!"

When the blond-haired boy passed by his sensei one his way back while she was carrying the bundled stalks in towards the warehouse, he'd nearly mastered his blush. Of course, when the bunshin which had been working with her the better part of the day dispelled, his composure was well and truly shattered.

The farmer's middle-aged wife fussed Naruto at dinner, worrying the blond was coming down with a fever, but his sensei's amused gaze proved that she knew otherwise.

_'I really hope she doesn't tell this to Jiji, he'll never let me live it down...'_

_

* * *

_**Japanese Term/Jutsu List:**

Sakazuki: The circular dish in which sake is often served.

Hi no Kuni: Land of Fire.

Iwa no Kuni: Land of Rock/Stone

Tokubetsu Jounin: Special Jounin, a rank given to a ninja with roughly chuunin level abilities in most principals, but jounin level skill in a certain ninja art (in Yuuhi Kurenai's case, genjutsu).

**A/N**: Another chapter down. The information regarding Hi no Kuni's trading system with Suna and Iwa is going to be important for later chapters, but if you forget it it won't be any big deal, you'll be able to understand the situation in the future either way. If you want to read a bit more about it, I might put some more information about it in my profile later this week.

Next chapter I'll explore the dynamics in the genin team in a bit more depth, and go into some training. Also in the near future will be Team 4's first C-rank mission, and I really hope to break the mold with that one!

Regarding a good point brought up by Lord Myst, I intend to make Akane into a character all her own in these next few chapters. There's a dang good reason why Anko would never be considered for the rank of Jounin, and that isn't only because of her past interactions with Orochimaru. Akane is different, and I _hope_ to present that well in this story but...it's a bit tough. I'll have to write myself out of a bit of a whole there, neh? You all should keep me posted on your thoughts in that regard, I don't want any of my characters to be clones of others.

Until next time, please read and review you all. Your insight is greatly appreciated!


	10. Of Looming Dangers

**Disclaimer: The Naruto Universe: I don't own it.**

Author's Note at the end of the chapter.

* * *

Ninko, Chapter 10: Of Looming Dangers

Team Four returned to Konoha late in the afternoon, their D-rank completed after four days of laboring on one of the many farm's dotting Hi no Kuni's expansive land.

Upon entering the village proper, Naruto could feel the change in atmosphere as though it were day and night. Instead of looks of welcome, he received suspicious glances. It was distressing, to feel more appreciated abroad with a family he'd never heard of before.

When he was younger, the isolation between himself and the villagers was far more problematic. When the winter's chill made him ill, or some random calamity reared it's head, he'd been left alone to fend for himself. As he grew, his body was less likely to grow ill, and the various scrapes and bruises often healed themselves over the course of the night. Nevertheless, it was a sobering experience, even for a child his age: to know that he was alone. The only one actively concerned with his well being was the Sandaime Hokage, and for obvious reasons the aged shinobi was distanced from the blond-haired boy.

And at it's core, that is what he felt whenever within his 'home'. Distance. Though he may walk the streets, he may as well be miles away. He'd almost grown to relish the negative attention he received - the glares, the dismissals - it was predictable. He could rely on. Those hesitant eyes, though, alight with fear and hate and pity, and countless other things he couldn't hope to identify...

..those eyes terrified him.

Even now, a shinobi of Konoha, they frightened him. It was why he avoided crowds and restaurants, why he trained himself to exhaustion and then locked himself away in his apartment.

With eyes like those; watching, waiting, probing eyes, he knew not what his fellow villagers were capable of.

* * *

"Will you be able to do it, Akane-san?"

The question prompted a frown, and the raven-haired woman tightened her grip on her obi unconsciously. "That's...not a fair question to ask, Hokage-sama."

"And yet ask it I must," Sarutobi replied firmly. His hands were folded on his desk, and he regarded Team Four's Jounin-sensei, Namiashi Akane with a soft sigh.

"I can't say for certain, Hokage-sama," the woman ventured at last, breaking through the silence that had settled over the room. "I've never taught children before. Though they may be genin, their development is...unpredictable."

Nodding reassuringly, Sarutobi smiled slightly. "They certainly are an unpredictable bunch, are they not? It is impossible to tell what heights any of these new genin may reach, which is why I don't relish this decision," the Hokage admitted frankly.

"But why my genin? Certainly an older and more experienced genin team would be better suited..." the woman trailed off uncertainly. Her stance was rigid, but her words were chosen tactfully. It was clear she had a problem with his request at it's core that wouldn't be addressed as things were.

"There are very few complete genin teams available for this task, you know this. With the situation with the Kyuubi, the skirmishes with Iwa and the Uchiha massacre, most of the genin teams are missing members of have been dissolved and merged with current chuunin," the Hokage explained, easily. "You didn't need me to tell you that, though. If you have an objection, speak up."

"I don't enjoy the thought of sending my kids to the slaughterhouse for the sake of a political statement. They're _children_."

_'Her kids? For her to become so attached so quickly...I hadn't expected this.' _"I don't make this decision lightly, Akane-san. There are risks associated, but the benefits-"

"I _refuse_ to throw them to the wolves to tout Danzou's little pet project!" Namiashi Akane interrupted, her voice impassioned and her eyes alight with flame. "They're worth more than some political clout for that crippled bastard!"

"I remember the Third War." Akane continued, her voice fiery. "I remember watching my classmates and teammates die in droves. They were shinobi, yes, but they were also _children_! And they _died_ as children: crying and afraid as death loomed over them, weeping, begging for their mothers!"

The jounin's countenance was dark as she paused. Her words were far more subdued, yet her face revealed nothing. Her emotions were on a tight leash. "I do not want to see the same for these kids. They haven't a clue what lies beyond the outskirts of Konoha, the shinobi world will eat them alive. I won't send them needlessly into the lion's den."

"You've made your point, Akane-san," the Hokage said, and his face was somber as he let out a sigh. "It is necessary."

The wooden doors opened and closed with an echoing crack, and Sarutobi sat alone in his office once more.

* * *

"Alright, Naruto-kun! Break time's over!"

The genin groaned, but reluctantly got to their feet.

After their last extended D-rank outside the city, Akane had given her genin the weekend off to rest. The Monday afterward, she had approached them with a surprise: they'd been given a week free from D-rank missions, since they'd more than fulfilled their quota.

Three hours had passed, and Naruto had long since realized their 'vacation' would be hell.

Standing up shakily, Naruto could hear the **thump-thump-thump** of his teammates scaling their respective trees, and dimly he felt jealous at their progress. Tree-walking had been one of the first exercises he'd been instructed in: it was reasonably chakra intensive, it developed control, and he couldn't kill anyone with it. When Bandage-san had his masked friends train him, the crippled shinobi had made it clear that he did not trust the blond jinchuuriki, and that such trust would have to be earned.

And earn it he did, through blood, sweat and tears. Where once the Bandaged Elder thought of the boy as a threat...

...well, now he was considered _"an adequately trained, somewhat dependable threat,"_ as the man had described it on their last meeting.

He was broken from his reverie when his sensei tossed a kunai in his direction. An instinctive roll brought him out of harms way, with an objection on his lips.

"I told you break time was over, Naruto-kun. Now, pay attention," his sensei advised, before collapsing into a pile of dry earth.

_'A bunshin!'_

Immediately leaping into the air, Naruto's short flight was terminated by a jarring kick to his back, sending him back to the ground gracelessly. Turning his fall into a roll, Naruto ignored his shoulder's protest as somersaulted to his feet.

He heard his sensei's feet touch the grass, rustling like a breeze as she cushioned her fall with chakra. Fluidly, the boy turned while plucking a kunai from his pouch and flung it towards his sensei.

Or, at least, he tried to.

The three-or-so meter gap he'd expected between himself and jounin was less than a foot, and the woman caught his wrist mid-throw. Turning his spin against him, she used his arm as a lever to flip him over her hip and to the ground. His elbow and shoulder protested the treatment, and he landed with a groan.

"Well, you did better. You managed to get the kunai clear of your pouch this time."

As the boy dragged himself to his feet, the woman continued.

"Your taijutsu is abysmal. For your age, it's fine, and for a genin, it's average. However, you'll be hard pressed to even hold of a ninja above your skill level if you can't hold your own in hand to hand. Your reflexes are good, but your strength is lacking, primarily due to your age. We'll have to make up for that with technique," pausing, the raven-haired woman helped her whiskered genin to his feet. Though the boy was addled by the fall, the way he hung on her every word was...somewhat disquieting. He'd expected a child his age to be somewhat more...spastic.

"Until you grow a bit more, you're not going to be throwing any knockout punches, and your reach is a great deal shorter than even your peers. Instead, I want you to consider a different type of taijutsu," the woman continued at last. "Something a bit more...strategic."

Pausing, for a moment, the woman frowned, before walking where her other two students were practicing their tree walking. Each had progressed at a respectable speed, making it nearly to the top of the tree multiple times, if the kunai marks were any indication. At this point, they had the exercise down, the only thing that cause them to fail was wavering concentration. A break would likely due them good.

"Yo, Miyuki-chan!" Akane shouted, startling the Hyuuga as she began her run up the tree. Abruptly, her foot broke through the trunk and she flailed her arms, kicking off before landing in a stumble.

"Not funny, Sensei," Miyuki responded with a glare.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You need to pay may attention to what's around you, a shinobi is never caught of guard, blah blah blah. Anyway, I want you to spar with Naruto, taijutsu only."

"That's not a particularly fair match-up, sensei," Miyuki replied smoothly, her eyes flicking towards the slightly battered blond.

"Eh, we're shinobi. We don't play fair."

* * *

"Ouch! What was that, Miyuki-chan?!" her blond-haired teammate asked with a shocked look on his face.

Miyuki cut the flow of chakra to her eyes, and the enlarged veins receded almost instantly. "It is the Juuken, a style of taijutsu exclusive to the Hyuuga clan. It focuses on attacking tenketsu as well as internal organs, disrupting chakra flow and even outright destroying an opponents heart or arteries."

Though described in a detached manner, Naruto's eyes grew increasingly larger, and when Miyuki finished they were the size of saucers. "Wow, that's so cool! And the Byakugan allows you to spot the body's tenketsu, right?"

"Yes...that's correct," Miyuki replied uneasily. _'He didn't know what Juuken was, but knew of the Byakugan's ability to see tenketsu? The knowledge of the two usually comes hand-in-hand.'_

"Alright, but how does Juuken work?" the boy queried, stretching out his arms.

"Like I said, it attacks the tenketsu and disables chakra flow," Miyuki replied, slightly confused. _'Did he already forget?'_

"Yeah, yeah, you already said that!" Noting the confused look, on his teammate's face, Naruto elaborated. "That's what it does, but _how_ does it do it?"

Nodding at last, the girl held up her hand. A blue glow was emitted from her palm, enveloping her fingertips to the point where it covered the entire inside of her hand. Rotating her hand, though, she demonstrated that the chakra wasn't emitted from the back of her hand nor the backs of her fingers. "What you're seeing now is far more dramatized than you are likely to see from an expert. The damage Juuken inflicts doesn't come solely from the force of the moving hand, instead it comes from lances of chakra sent into an opponent's circulatory system. Alone, that chakra can disrupt jutsu and close tenketsu. Targeted to specific areas, it can 'follow' the criculartory system and attack organs and other tissue directly. A master of the style would be able to destroy an opponent's heart with a single finger." To demonstrate, she held up her index finger.

"This requires a great deal of precision, however, and I am currently not capable of such a feat," Miyuki admitted frankly. "Instead, to attack tenketsu I use multiple fingers and my palm," at this, she unfolded her fingers once more. "There is a limit to how much foreign chakra a Juuken strike can contain. The limit can be gradually surpassed through training, or through limiting the surface area of one's attack, so it all enters the targeted tenketsu point. This, however, requires pin-point precision that likely only Hyuuga Hiashi possess. The only other parties I'd expect it from would be the younger elders, who haven't had their finger dexterity eroded by age."

The boy nodded, frowning as he digested all the information his teammate had provided him with. It gave him a few things to consider. "Why are you telling me all of this?" the blond queried delicately. "The more I know, the greater chance I have at finding a weakness."

The Hyuuga smiled slightly. "The proper answer would be that your efforts would bear no fruit. The Juuken is a perfect style, and has led the Hyuuga clan to it's position of dominance."

"Yeah? Well what about the less proper answer?"

"Mm, that would be that we're teammates, and we should look out for one another," the lavender-eyed girl replied. "Furthermore, there are other shinobi with knowledge of the Juuken, and anything you discover could just as easily be discovered by another. Weaknesses aren't created, they're discovered. Better you discover them than an enemy shinobi."

Nodding, Naruto jumped to his feet. "Well, then I'll be sure to find _every_ weakness in that style, Miyuki-chan! Dattebayo!"

"Good to hear it," the Hyuuga replied with a bit more warmth than was her custom, "Naruto-kun."

She was a bit taken aback by his vitality, though. _'I didn't fully close any of his tenketsu, but it's odd that someone our age would be able to shake off strikes so quickly regardless.'_ When the Hyuuga activated her Byakugan, she found that the tenketsu she targeted had already dilated once more.

"Ready when you are Naruto-kun."

The boy paused, taking a deep breath before nodding. "Ready."

At once the two both exploded into motion. Aware of the danger of his teammates strikes, Naruto shifted his focus from her torso to her extremities. Smacking his teammates right hand aside first, he attempted to slip into her guard, yet he lacked the time to plant himself for a strong punch before she danced out of range.

Moments strung together, and soon the clearing was filled with their labored breaths. They traded blows, with Miyuki gradually increasing the speed of her strikes as Naruto attempted to establish a flow.

Naruto attempted to keep his sensei's advice in mind, and tried to focus on his teammate's arms instead of her torso. Trying to attack her through a hole in her defense was unlikely. However, if he were to make such a hole, it would be far easier. However, his teammate was no fool, the moment he committed to disabling one arm, the other was brought to bear. Even now the boy's left hand was an angry red, and it was doubtful he'd be able to uncurl his fingers.

Miyuki didn't simply allow the boy to analyze her style, though. She pushed him on the defensive, and scored numerous glancing strikes to his arms and legs, and two light brushes against his stomach. His movements were labored, now, as his movements became more sluggish, more of her strikes landed. The result was predetermined. It was fate.

Unwilling to simply let nature run it's course, though, Miyuki enacted a strategy of her own. Dodging to the side of her teammate's strikes to her arms, she kicked out with leg, hooking her foot around Naruto's ankle and sending him stumbling. A firm strike to the outer thigh and his leg buckled, and the blond fell to the floor in a heap.

In the end, it was quick. Lasting little more than a couple minutes, for the two shinobi it had felt as though time had crawled by.

"You did well, Naruto-kun," Miyuki remarked, giving him a moment to recover before offering to help him up.

"You went easy on me," Naruto replied, though his voice was devoid of annoyance or malice. Clearly, the fact hadn't injured his pride overmuch.

"It's a training exercise, neither of us will learn anything if the match is over in a matter of seconds."

Naruto's eyes were alight with mock insult. "Are you saying you could take me down 'in a matter of seconds'?"

"It's possible," Miyuki admitted coyly. "And with that tenketsu in your leg sealed? Probable."

Naruto scowled, opening his mouth to retort before he heard the voice of his sensei shouting from a nearby clearing. "Yo, Naruto-kun, Miyuki-chan, get back here, it's time for lunch!"

"Lunch?" Naruto queried with a smirk. "I'm starvin'!"

Jumping to his feet, Naruto half limped, half jogged toward where his sensei had called from, while his teammate watched his progress critically.

_'Moving already...such a strange boy...'_

_

* * *

_**A/N: **Another chapter of Ninko down, complete with a bit of foreshadowing for future events! If you're a bit confused about the scene with the Sandaime and Akane, that's intentional. It will be explored later, but I'm sure a few of you can hazard a guess.

Short chapter this time, and I wasn't able to get it out during the week like I had wanted. This chapter will likely replace Mondays, and I'll probably have Monday's up by Wednesday or Thursday, but I give no promises. Work-load is starting to increase a bit.

Anyway, please read and review, your insight is **greatly** appreciated, be it criticism or praise.


	11. Of Growth and Order

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto Universe.**

Author's Note at the end of the chapter.

* * *

Ninko, Chapter 11: Of Growth and Order.

…_drip…_

…_drip…_

All was silent, except the endless prattle of water. Drop after drop, moment after moment. For all It's time in It's host, the sound was the only constant.

…_drip…_

The sound echoed in the vastness, suffused every corner, even where the light had surrendered to the consuming shadow.

And yet It stirs, and red vulpine eyes survey the darkness. Nine tails twitch, and the silence is disturbed as they dance across the water.

White teeth - sharp and pointed, those of a predator - spread into a sick parody of a grin.

'_Ah, how these apes grow. From helpless kits to helpless youths in heartbeats…'_

…_drip…_

…_drip…_

'_The haste…how quaint. Shall this ape grow in time to meet the Dawn?'_

…_drip…_

* * *

'_Eh, I suppose that will suffice. Don't want to break the kiddies too much.'_

"Alright, that's enough!"

As though on cue, a chorus of _pops_ and puffs of smoke filled the clearing. Mitokado Hiyori dropped down from her perch in the trees, her scroll omnipresent scroll strapped against her back and her fingers covered in cuts and dried blood. Her breathing was labored, and her clothing was torn; small branches and leaves came out of her hair as she descended. Her landing was less than graceful, and she showed all the symptoms of mild chakra exhaustion.

Hyuuga Miyuki also responded to her sensei's call promptly. Like her teammate, she looked haggard; sweat covered her brow and she looked unnaturally pale. The girl had thrown herself into her chakra conditioning with gusto. Elemental training has often been unofficially limited to chuunin and above, primarily due to it's chakra intensive nature. Both of the kunoichi of team four possessed above average chakra control (well above average for Miyuki, due to her training with the Hyuuga clan's techniques), however they were lacking in reserves. If the jounin were to even consider teaching the two elemental ninjutsu, they'd have to improve their chakra capacity.

The best way to do so was to put as much of a drain on one's reserves as possible. Akane had paired up Hiyori with Naruto, having the blond-haired boy throw kunai at his teammate forcing her to leap from tree to tree in order to avoid them. She worked personally with another Naruto (the original, as the bruising could attest to) on his taijutsu.

The boy was certainly improving his technique, yet his growth wasn't nearly as pronounced as his teammates. It was simply a matter of body mass. While shinobi were able to enhance their physical abilities with chakra, it still depended upon muscle mass. In addition, putting too much strain on such a young body would be dangerous, so she wasn't inclined to improve her male genin's strength through chakra enhancement.

Hoisting Naruto up to his feet, Akane resisted the urge to grin at the boy's wince. Giving the boy a shove towards his teammates, the jounin chuckled. "You've done well this week..." the raven-haired jounin admitted.

_'They've grown a great deal. Beyond mere shinobi techniques, they've learned to work together, to rely on one another. Kinship is more than referring to one another by their first names, and they've learned that, it seems...'_

_'...perhaps Hokage-sama was right. Perhaps they can be ready in time.'_ The blade-wielding jounin chuckled to herself. _'Not that I'd ever tell the brats that.'_

",,,well, you did well for _genin_. You have tomorrow off, so enjoy it. And no training, can't have my baby genin working at half capacity on our second mission outside of Konoha, now can I?"

Akane noted the looks of disdain that spread upon her genin's face. "Already? I swear, how many farms are there?!" Naruto grumbled. "I swear, if I have to shovel horse crap again..."

"No farming this time Naruto-kun! I expect to see you here Monday morning, bright and early and packed for travel!"

"Wait," Naruto exclaimed, regarding his sensei with a cautious grin. "Does that mean we're finally getting a C-rank?"

"Nope! This farm's just _really_ far away, Naru-chan. See 'ya Monday!"

Grinning mischievously, Namiashi Akane disappeared amongst falling leaves.

* * *

"Gah, ouch!"

Grumbling under his breath, Naruto gingerly sucked on his finger, his face contorted into a frown all the while.

"Be quit, brat! You're ruining my concentration!" Hiyori growled in response, balling up a piece of parchment and tossing it into the waste basket irritably. A calligraphy brush was nestled in her fingers, an inkwell open and filling to room with a bitter odor.

"Sorry Hiyori-chan," Naruto replied honestly, watching with a slight wince as she began transcribing seals once more. The burn in his hand was forgotten as he watched her hand dance across the parchment.

"Just don't..." she paused, brushing out a circle with various symbols before filling it in with the kanji for "water", "...do it again, 'kay?"

Nodding, Naruto watched as she drew a few more symbols around the circle, referencing a small notebook next to her on the table. When Hiyori paused to wipe some sweat from her brow, Naruto cleared his throat.

"So...what exactly is that for, anyway?"

"Well, it's a capture seal, I use it gather water, which I the transfer into smaller "release" seals. Y'see, these ones here," the girl point to a column of seals next to the "water" kanji, "let me move it into the pseudo storage scrolls."

"Pseudo storage scrolls?" Naruto echoed, his tone clearly confused.

"Well, they're sorta like the storage scrolls for kunai and weapons and stuff, but they're designed specifically for water. _Hot _water. They take the heat and use that to push the water out when they're 'opened'," Hiyori explained calmly, waving her hand over the ink in a futile effort to hasten the drying process.

"So...when you unseal it, it the water should be cold, but moving fast? Sorta like a suiton jutsu, right?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. Except since the seals do all the work, it doesn't require me to use any chakra, and it doesn't make a chakra flare. It's an undetectable suiton jutsu, all it takes is preparation time."

Nodding, Naruto smiled. "How long did it take you to make that bad boy?"

Hiyori looked at her teammate as though he had grown a second head. "I didn't make this, are you kidding? I copied it from there," the brunette gestured over to the book lying on the table. "It was written by Jiraiya of the Densetsu no Sannin."

"Wow! Where'd you find that?"

"Well...it was a gift from my grandfather. I told him about my trouble with ninjutsu - cause my chakra reserves are so small, I couldn't even hold up a henge for long in he academy - and he gave me that book."

"Oh...who's your grandfather?"

"Mitokado Homura."

_'"So this is Uzumaki Naruto, huh?" a gray-haired, bespectacled man questioned. His face was hard-set, and his eyes were cold. Nonetheless, his lips were spread into a smile._

_"My name's Mitokado Homura, I'm an old teammate of Hokage-sama's. I've heard a lot about you, boy."'_

"Oh..." Naruto replied, trailing off uncomfortably. Fortunately, his teammate had long since turned her attention to her scroll. She was currently rolling it up and stuffing it in her keikogi. Pulling a smaller scroll out, she unfurled it, bit her finger to draw some blood and unsealed a massive roll of parchment.

"So, Naruto-kun," Hiyori began, unrolling the scroll with practiced ease. "What were you doing anyway?"

"...watching you make your seals..." Naruto replied, confusion clear in his tone.

Hiyori sighed, rolling her eyes. "Before that, or did you manage to burn yourself by standing around?"

The blond glanced down at his hand with a frown noting the angry red burn on his hand.

"Ah, that! Well, just something stupid I was trying out," the boy responded evasively, chuckling slightly.

"Well, what's it supposed to do?" Hiyori responded, either unaware or unbothered by Naruto's hesitance.

"Uh...well, after dueling with Miyuki-chan, I realized that dodging her wouldn't really work for very long." Naruto mumbled, "and blocking doesn't really work, because that just ends up hurting my hands. So, what if I just...covered my hands in chakra when I _did_ block. Sorta like the tree walking exercise, except instead of grabbing something, I'm trying to push it away."

"Huh, haven't heard of that being tried before," Hiyori admitted, "it does make sense though."

"Yeah, well people probably don't try it because it doesn't...work!" Naruto replied exasperated. "If there's too little, she can just wave her hand and it goes right through. If there's to much, it burns _me_ and damage my tenketsu anyway!"

"Well, why do you have it touching your skin in the first place?" Hiyori replied, confused.

"Well, it makes it a lot easier to keep the chakra together. As is, it keeps on leaking all over the place, and if I don't keep it against my hand, it leaks even more, since it has more free space around it," the whiskered youth replied, nodding sagely.

Hiyori paused, digesting her teammates words before sighing. "You sound like you haven't a clue what you're talking about," the girl replied bluntly.

"Aheh, well, that's because I don't," Naruto admitted. "I'm sorta making it up as I go along."

"At least your honest about it," the girl replied, beginning to scribe some seals on the scroll. These one's were different from the first, in that they were all identical. The parameters for the pseudo-storage array sat within a circle.

"How about you try it again, the technique you're working on."

Naruto ablidged, and the palm of his hand began to glow blue. Unlike the uniform aura that the juuken created, though, it looked like 'sheets' of chakra flowing out from the blond's hand, varying in thickness. The further from the hand they became, the lighter the blue until it completely fizzled out. lancing up from his hand, he regarded his teammate for a split second, yet that was long enough to disturb his concentration.

"Ouch! Crap!" The flow of chakra stilled immediately, and the boy cradled his hand to his chest.

Wincing in sympathy, Hiyori frowned. "If your technique turns on you while you're using it, it's not much use in a fight, Naruto-kun..."

"I know that! Give me time though, I'll figure it out!"

Smiling at the boy's enthusiasm, the girl turned her attention back to her scroll. "Whatever you say, _kouhai_."

* * *

"Hello, Akane-san. Have you made your decision yet?"

"...decision? But I thought..."

"You believed I'd send them without your consent?" Sarutobi queried, a ghost of a smile upon his age-worn lips. "You wound me, Akane-san. I will do what I must, yet if you believe they are not prepared, then I will trust your judgement."

"Very well," Akane replied with a nod. "They're not prepared, and they won't be."

"You're lying."

A weary sigh left the jounin's lips. "Yeah."

"It's a risk, Akane-san, I don't necessarily ask, or expect that they succeed. I simply want them to survive."

"They won't give up," Akane replied grimly. "They're driven, for children. They don't know discretion, they don't know to chose the path of least resistance. I fear they won't learn until it is too late."

"They must learn it eventually," Sarutobi replied grimly. "Sooner, rather than later, for either path leads them into the lion's den. Be it in Iwa or Suna..."

"I know, Hokage-sama," the jounin replied. Her usual upbeat attitude was absent. "You were right. It is a necessary risk."

"You've told them already, have you not?"

"I've told them enough. They'll be ready Monday morning."

"Then hopefully their mission will be a suitable introduction," Sarutobi stated, lighting his pipe with a flicker of chakra. "When you return, I'll assign you fewer D-ranks to give you time to prepare."

"Thank-you, Hokage-sama."

* * *

The delicate sound of water filled the air, it's gentle warble as it danced between stones the only sound that could be heard in the quiet garden. The Hyuuga Clan's compound was styled to embody all the virtues the clansmen themselves held dear. Nowhere was this more obvious than the gardens.

An artificial river flowed through the center of the gardens, flowing upon palm-sized stones. Concrete walkways formed a symetrical lattice around the river, dividing sections devoted to grass as well as a sakura tree, all immaculately trimmed. Everything was governed by order, not even a single sakura petal could be found sovereign from it's kin, forming a halo fo pink and white around the tree trunks. Along the sides were concrete squares, and upon one of those squares Hyuuga Miyuki sat, dwelling in the tranquility of nature.

_'No, not nature,' _the girl reminded herself with a frown on her lips. _'This is merely a parody of it. A sick doppleganger of it, stripped of life. For what is life without chaos? Without disorder, and the quest to correct it?'_

Miyuki's hitai-ate lay on the ground beside her, and she could feel the wind on her forehead. Feel _it_ upon her skin. The brand. The mark. The seal. The Hyuuga Clan's greatest instrument of order.

It was tradition in the Hyuuga Clan to teach it's branch members the effects of the Hyuuga Souke no Juinjutsu. The Caged Bird Seal. To teach them the price of disorder.

She was born a Hyuuga, and she'd die a Hyuuga, it was the way of things. From birth she'd learned the proper way to speak and to act. From her first steps onward she'd learn to carry herself with a Hyuuga's pose. And by the time she'd open her eyes, and truly _seen_...they were no longer hers.

They were the Hyuuga's eyes. The Byakugan. The seal upon her forehead was proof, that those eyes belonged to the clan.

It was the way of things, she had been told. It was a matter of tradition, of custom. _Order_ demanded that the children of the Hyuuga Clan be brought screaming and kicking under the brush. _Order_ demanded they learn to walk, talk and fight as a Hyuuga must.

It was the way of things. Miyuki was born a Hyuuga, and she'd die a Hyuuga...

...but she'd not live as one. Order be damned.

_'I will find what is mine, not theirs. I will be Miyuki, a kunoichi, for as long as my body will obey.'_

_

* * *

_

**Japanese Term/Jutsu List:**

Hyuuga Souke no Jutsu: Literally, Hyuuga Main Family's Cursed Seal Technique.

**A/N:** Another short chapter, and interlude if you will. I _might_ finish Chapter 12 by Sunday, but it not, I'm not going to be able to write again until October 5th, due to various obligations coming up. Either way, this is the last chapter of this little "Team Four" mini-arc, next chapter marks the first C-rank mission, as well as a gradual path towards 'the big event'. I'm sure you folks can guess what it is by now, but if not...well, it'll become clearer soon.

Next chapter also promises more travel, more dirt, and more action! Once again, I'm sorry for how brief this chapter was, I've been having a major case of writers block now that school's started and my creative energies are being channeled elsewhere, heh.

Seals are going to play a major part in this story, as the first few chapters should have indicated. This is but one of _many_ chapters that will discuss seals, because I intend to venture forth into new territory in regards to sealing!

As an aside, I've make my descion on what Naruto's elemental affinities will be, so I'm closing that poll. A warning to those who voted, it's not going to be Wind/Earth, however the poll did give me a few ideas!

Anyway, I have a question for you all: was the description of the seals detailed enough? I don't want to drown you folks in it, but if it's still unclear, I'll try to be a bit more description next time.

Until next time!


	12. Of Shadows and Memories

**Disclaimer: This is simply my dabblings into the massive Naruto sandbox. I don't profit from my little sand castle.**

**A/N:** Oh man, this month has sailed by fast. I can't count the number of times a fanfic writer has said that in a story I was reading, and almost every time I roll my eyes in response. A month is a month, after all. Now, I can empathize.

My time is rather limited right now, with mid-terms and the like. However, I will attempt to pick up the pace and update more frequently than once a month.

A few stylistic changes in my writing, I think. I've been experimenting with a few things, and I like how they've turned out here. Nevertheless, please give me some critique, your insight is very valuable to me.

I decided to move the author's note to the top of the chapter from now on. Also, I added a new **poll**, so take a look at that when you get a chance. Your votes will definitely influence what I write about in the next few chapters, since I've completely run out of pre-written pieces. Nevertheless, the plotline is still in my head, so the story shouldn't be to convoluted.

* * *

Ninko, Chapter 12: Of Shadows and Memories

The scent of dung hung heavy in the air, cloying in one's nostrils and saturating their clothes. Just as inescapable was the incessant buzzing, pea-sized pests flying to and fro. It had taken mere minutes to outgrow the habit of swatting at the nuisances: there were always more.

Instead, Uzumaki Naruto set his focus unerringly upon hitching the beasts of burden -- donkeys, mules, and the odd horse -- to the various carts the merchants had left along the road.

Leading his latest group from the stable, Naruto allowed his eyes to wander, taking in the morning's sights. The stable was situated near Konoha's main gate, and even now the traffic along the thoroughfare was respectable. Haggard merchants guided their mule-drawn carts into the village proper, while smaller groups of merchants began their own business ventures. A squad of ANBU, one of them likely a Hyuuga, watched over the procession, as the chuunin's watching the gate provided a less covert form of security.

Konoha had a large population, but a relatively small area. It was defendant upon trade to maintain a constant supply of food throughout the seasons. The Byakugan's ability to near simultaneously screen every merchant traveling through Konoha was a sizable feather in the clan's cap.

Tearing his gaze from the enigmatic masked figures perched above the gate, Naruto distributed his four-legged charges to their respective owners. He noted his teammates lashing down the canvas tarps over the cart's open beds. The simple measure was designed to protect the goods from both the weather and the prying eyes of thieves, though it would do little to deter any resolute bandits. Such is what necessitated their presence, and though the mission was unlikely to promise much in the way of action, Naruto was nevertheless excited at the opportunity.

Convoy escort was frequently assigned to two-man chuunin teams, and occasional one-man jounin teams. Larger squads were rarely necessary, since bandits were often intimidated by the mere sight of a trained shinobi. Why bother assaulting one of Konoha's elite when they could simply wait for a more vulnerable caravan? The missions were frequently too dangerous for genin, though, as bandits would hardly be deterred by a child, regardless of how trained said youth may be.

Naruto honestly couldn't fathom why they were given this mission. They were newly graduated academy students, so their youth was quite evident. The oldest of the team were both pre-pubescent girls, and their jounin-sensei, also a female, didn't wear the distinctive clothing a jounin typically wore. Given that bandits were primarily made up of adult men, the odds were high they'd overestimate their odds against the female ninja.

If the ninja served primarily as a deterrent, why chose the least physically imposing team available?

It was an uncomfortable realization, and the likely answer was even more disconcerting: they were bait.

_'Perhaps Akane-sensei is testing us?'_ Naruto wondered uneasily. _'Maybe she wants to see how much we've grown since we graduated? Even if so, why have such dangerous conditions? Failure in this instance would result in more than a few bruises...'_

"Yo, Naruto-kun," Akane barked, and Naruto snapped himself out of his stupor. "Quit daydreamin', the caravan's almost ready to move out."

"Yes, sensei," the blond replied with a sigh.

"Don't _'yes sensei'_ me you little squirt, you need to stay focused," the jounin replied firmly.

"Understood, Akane-sensei."

"Now, that's better. You and Hiyori-chan take point."

_'She's nervous...a test then...' _Naruto though to himself with a grin._ 'Well, we'll pass your test Akane-sensei! Dattebayo!'_

_

* * *

_The scroll smacked against the small of her back with every step, and Hiyori fought the powerful urge to simply seal the ungainly parchment away.

Nevertheless, she wanted to stay ready. She'd felt a bit uneasy about this whole affair from the beginning, and her blond-haired teammate managed to put her concerns into words rather well. What _were_ they doing out here?

The blond's belief that the mission was a test was a reasonable one, but it left questions unanswered. Why test them in such an unconventional fashion? They'd spent the last quarter of an hour discussing it in hushed tones, while their eyes scanned the tree-line flanking the road.

"I still don't know what you mean by _'why'_, the point of a test is to...well...test. What's so hard to understand about it?" the blond queried, the over-long sleeves of his haori flapping the breeze as he walked.

"Idiot kouhai," the brunette mumbled under her breath, and she resisted the urge to grin as her blond teammate clenched his hand into a fist. "Why would she test us like this? It's...reckless."

"Well, duh," Naruto drawled, taking a moment to shoot his teammate a glance. "But since when was Akane-sensei orthodox?"

"But..." Naruto continued, before frowning. "Damn," the boy said at last, sighing.

Hiyori nodded slightly. Subtly prompting him to continue, she began, "it can't just be her..."

"...because Jiji assigns the missions," the blond finished.

His teammate stopped for a second, making a strangled cough in the back of her throat. "D-did...did you just call the _Sandaime Hokage_ **_Jiji_**?" Hiyori hissed under her breath, abandoning all pretense of conversing discretely.

"Aheh...no?"

Hiyori gave the boy a glare, but otherwise let the matter drop. She couldn't help but think about the boy's relationship with the venerable village leader, though. Part of her shock at the slang term was the fact that boy constantly referred to a 'Jiji', though she'd previously though him to be a grandfather or a family member. Either the blond had very little respect for authority, or his relationship with the Sandaime was...unconventional.

Right now, she could only guess as to which it was. It struck Hiyori that she knew very little about the blond. In fact, she knew little about Miyuki as well. It was...disconcerting to realize. They'd spent nearly a month together as a team trading little more than small talk?

Sighing, Hiyori decided to focus on the task at hand. She'd be able to talk with her teammates, perhaps more meaningfully, after the mission. If she allowed herself to become to distracted, however, there may not _be_ an 'after the mission' for her. Of course, the odds of a bandit striking her down under Akane-sensei's watchful eyes was unlikely, but depending upon such intervention was not a good habit for a kunoichi to get into.

Turning her attention to her surroundings, Hiyori had to admit that Konoha's scenery was breathtaking.

The mighty trunks, monuments to the Shodaime Hokage's prowess, stood tall and resolute despite their relative youth. The road, though unpaved, was relatively well kept. Since leaving the "Crossroads of Konoha" (the area where the single path out of Konohagakure no satou split into a four-way crossroad, heading more or less in each cardinal direction), the road had become a bit smaller. However, the convoy's destination, Sunagakure no satou, was a well-valued trading partner. As such, the infrastructure linking the two villages was well maintained.

Unlike her teammates, Mitokado Hiyori had traveled outside the village, though watching the unguarded look of awe on her blond teammate's face was a rather amusing experience. Naturally, Hyuuga Miyuki was far more difficult to read, but the stoic girl seemed far more at ease outside of city.

Still, she was determined to prevent her familiarity with her surrounding from turning to complacency. The shrubs grasses that flanked the road, greedily sucking up sunlight where the ever-present canopy of trees relented, came under her watchful eye in turn. Though there was little chance that bandits would be able to conceal themselves within such small pieces of foliage, ninja certainly could. If there was one thing she'd learned in the academy, it was constant vigilance.

If there were two things...well, the latter was that constant vigilance was chronically boring.

* * *

The clearing was filled with odor of roasting meat from the prior meal. The night's air was heavy, humid, and except for the movements of the odd nocturnal beast, all was silent.

The carts lay motionless on the roadside, and the animals were leashed in a clearing adjacent to the camp. Many of the merchants slumbered in tents, but a few others decided to slumber beneath the stars due to the mild weather Konoha was famous for. Such a practice wouldn't continue after they had crossed the border; Suna was infamous for it's desert wildlife, and none wished for a chance encounter with a scorpion while they slept.

Akane's watchful eyes surveyed the procession, paying close attention to her genin as they slept. She'd taken the second, leaving the first final shifts to Hiyori and Miyuki respectively. They'd benefit the most from the uninterrupted sleep, while Naruto would hardly be bothered by the disrupted sleep due to his inhuman stamina. The boy had taken the assignment without a complaint, though his teammates clearly didn't appreciate being coddled. She decided to allow them to sort out the matter themselves;the time would soon come when they would have to be self-sufficient.

Perhaps sooner than she hoped, if all went as the Sandaime intended. The venerable shinobi had a plan for team four, and she could do little but guide them along the path. Soon, even that would end.

The genin were suspicious, which gave her no small amount of relief. Ninja quickly learned to trust nothing in their professions, not their clients or their missions. Oftentimes, one's intuition was all that kept them from calamity.

_'Tch,'_ the jounin thought to herself, _'I'm sounding like an old woman. Who'd have though I'd become a jounin-sensei?'_

Her last bout as an instructor ended...well, poorly was too weak of a word. Catastrophically, perhaps. Though, she'd felt less like a mentor and more like a stepping stone; a gateway to bigger and better things, or perhaps a censor, a filter. Either way, she was too ambitious, too proud. She had too much faith, and even more cripplingly, too much hubris. In the end, the swell of pride in her gut had turned to ashes in her throat.

_'Kouhai to senpai, senpai to nukenin...'_

How could the Sandaime blame her for her caution, after all that had happened? To both trust and doubt her judgment in the span of the same heartbeat, the man was _senile_!

_'Jiji...neh?'_

She hoped the blond would prove her wrong. Yet he had power, perhaps even more than the last. What he lacked, or rather, failed to lack, was that vital core. The human, the 'weakness' of emotion. Perhaps it would be enough...

...if not, then she hoped his teammates would be able to do what she could not. They were some of the best of their age, and showed a great deal of potential. And they each had motivations of their own. Hiyori had her own inner demons for her to face, whereas Miyuki's were far to real for comfort. They'd learn to fight together, or fall together. Be it in life or death, their bonds would remain.

Anything else was unacceptable.

She sighed, fighting back the unease welling in her gut. The forest was ill, it was in the wood and earth. She'd felt it shortly after leaving the crossroads: the paranoia, the fear, the flickering _something_ at the edges of her mind. Flickering, flickering...

_'Senpai...kouhai...have you afflicted me with you madness, too? Is this your pox, the cancer in your heart, your mind?'_

The end of her shift came to pass, and she remained in her perch. Her genin slept beneath her, unperturbed. The jounin had little need for sleep.

_'My memories are company enough,'_ she sighed, watching the first rays of the sun rise over the horizon. _'I've no need now for dreams...'_

In the distance, the pinwheel turned.

* * *

The dunes of Suna lay less than half-a-day's travel ahead, yet the curtain of night was quickly descending over Hi no Kuni's expansive forests.

Queerly, both nin and merchant alike feverishly desired Suna's desolate wastes. A sense of anxiety had settled over the group, and they all felt as though the forest itself was their enemy. Every shadow housed a nameless threat, and the breeze through the tree boughs was the breath of an unseen foe.

Supper was eaten in silence, and even the beasts of the land joined in their stillness. There was naught to be heard but the rustling of the wind.

Akane had disappeared once more. a habit she had taken to every night since their first in the forests.

Thoughts of the test had been stricken from the genin's minds; they could see the genuine anxiety in their sensei's movements, and it shook them terribly. Mere bandits would not, _could not_ shake the resolve of an experienced jounin. Then what was it that troubled her thoughts? What were her eyes questing as she scanned the trees?

Miyuki had been paired with their sensei in the rear of the convoy since they'd left Konoha, and she'd done her best to respect her sensei's privacy. If the jounin wished to tell her charges of her thoughts, she would do so of her own accord. Nevertheless, she could not fight the urge to follow her sensei's gaze, desperate for some clue, some form to put to the currently formless threat.

Even Naruto, the indomitable ball of energy that he was, began to show signs of strain. In the morning his eyes were bloodshot, yet by the time the caravan hitched up their horses, all signs of fatigue had left him. He attempted to hide his nervousness behind a grin, yet he was a poorer actor than he believed, he could not fool her eyes. _Her_ eyes. Not theirs! Never theirs, unless a great need...

...she shook herself back to the present in time to see her blond teammate shudder awake. His fingers traced his whisker-like facial marks as he mumbled under his breath. Abruptly he turned his head to her perch, the movement so sudden she had to resist the urge to jump in her skin. His mouth stretched into another one of his faux-grins, yet once more it failed to reach his cerulean eyes.

Stretching, the boy rose to his feet, and sprinted silently up the tree to her lofty perch. If there was one thing her blond teammate was a master of, it was stealth. Humorous, then, that he sorely lacked in tact.

The boy plopping down across from her on the branch, barely managed to look his nine-years in his comically over-sized haori. It was difficult to mock the clothing, given that it turned a distinctive set of handseals into a rustling of black cloth, but combined with his short stature it made him look like a child playing ninja.

She'd never say such a thing aloud, though. The boy had earned her respect, and though he remained a bit of an enigma, she could not fault him for it, she was hardly the forthcoming sort herself.

"I'm ready for my shift, Miyuki-chan."

"Yours doesn't start for nearly an hour, Naruto-kun," the Hyuuga replied with a sigh.

"I can't sleep, not with all this..." he sighed. "...all _this_...going on."

"And you think I can?" Miyuki queried with a hint of incredulity.

In response, Naruto grinned slightly. This time, it was far more genuine. "...fair enough," he admitted at last.

A silence settled over the two, interrupted by their rhythmic breathing and the fluttering of leaves in the night's breeze. The two surveyed the clearing the caravan had bunkered down in, watching the merchants fitfull dreams and scanned the trees for their wayward sensei.

"Say...Miyuki-chan..."

"Yes?"

"I was wondering..." the boy paused, hesitant. She gave him an encouraging nod. "...about your goal, your dream..."

"Ah..." the Hyuuga replied, but said nothing else.

Instead, she watched her teammate fidget in the silence, now turned rather uncomfortable at his latest query.

"What's your dream, Naruto-kun?" the girl asked at last.

"To protect my village," the boy replied almost immediately.

"Ah, but that isn't your _dream_, it's your mission. It's the mission of every shinobi, to fight for the village," the girl paused, allowing her words to sink in. "Do you have any ambition? Any motivation? Before you die for your village, what do you want to accomplish?"

"I...uh..." the boy paused, trailing off.

_'He doesn't have a dream, does he?'_ the girl realized with a frown. _'How...sad.'_

"When you find a dream of your own, I will tell you of mine, Naruto-kun."

The blond-haired shinobi nodded his assent, staring down at his hands as though looking for answers.

Tearing her gaze away from her teammate, she gazed into the shadows. A shadow drew her eyes, and her gaze alighted upon a raven.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I decided to speed up the plot a little bit, and I hope you enjoy the next few chapters. You'll be seeing some familiar faces, and Sunagakure no satou awaits!

Hope you liked this chapter, spelling/grammar errors aside. If you've any critique, please submit a review or send me a PM, it's _always_ appreciated. This is a bit of a learning experience for me!


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